The Email Wars

Another study from Omniture cites that media is not dead, but marketing behavoirs are shifting. We all know this but it is interesting to see where this study has the shifts and where the growth is.

Online Marketing Ranks Second to In-Person for B2B in 2008

A recent Whitepaper, prepared by Omniture, Inc, a software provider for data storage and analysis, brings to light some B2B marketing insights and supporting secondary data for the development of strategies and tactics. Though not primary research, it supports good background planning.

The “Paper” concludes that Business to Business marketing, in order to be competitive in the Web 2.0 environment, has to be ahead of the trends. According to the Direct Marketing Association, says the report, by 2008 online marketing efforts will be the dominant media for business-to-business initiatives. Traditional direct mail, industry print, and events and promotions will take a back seat to more efficient and sophisticated online efforts. A Forrester Research study in 2005 indicated that by 2008, online marketing will be more ubiquitous than anything except in-person events (including sales calls).

(more…)

I know that Google rolled this out a while back, but it is becoming a situation now where we are breeding ADD behavoirs. Not that any of us need any more help, but this built in IM is like trying to tell a dog to sit while you are waving a ball above your head and pretending to throw it. I know that Google placed thiers in Gmail and it personally drive me crazy. Anything else in an inbox is a complete distraction. Like AdWords…. I get over 300 emails a day (on a slow day) and just fighting through an inbox and responding quickly can be a task, this might be why I don’t use any webmail as a primary mail. What are your thoughts on the inbox and ads, IM and noise that surrounds it. Does it take away from the messages?

Yahoo To Mesh IM, E-Mail

YAHOO STARTING NEXT YEAR WILL incorporate instant messaging features in its popular Web-based e-mail. Rival Google already incorporates an instant-message service in its free Web e-mail product, Gmail.

This was a interesting study that the DMA released. You would assume that the DMA would always point in favor of print direct mail as it has for so many years. Have the tides turned? Do marketers now truly believe in the power of email? Do you? We do at eROI.

The Disconnect by Bill McCloskey, Wednesday, MediaPost Email Insider

THE DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION RELEASED its latest Power of Direct economic-impact study last week, and the figures surrounding e-mail were quite amazing. The data has been mentioned in a few columns but bears repeating: The ROI for e-mail marketing was $57.25 for every dollar spent. The ROI of all non-e-mail-related online marketing was $22.52, less than half. And yet marketers only spent around $300 million on e-mail marketing efforts, compared to $12 billion for non-e-mail-related marketing–$12 billion to get a return that is less than half of what can be achieved in e-mail.

Read the Article at the Email Insider

If you were not at the first event in Arizona last June, you have no excuse or reason not to be at the one in Dec in Utah. And even more so that Mediapost just extended a $500 off deal to all Email Experience Council Subscribers. Jump on over and subscribe today and then get the code.

December 4-7th
Email Insiders Summit, Park City, Utah
Join all of the eec members speaking throughout this event including: Jeannniey Mullen and Paul Beck. Please attend our bi-annual eec open members meeting on the 7th.

I will tell you that getting a group like this in one room to hear the good and bad about all of our jobs is worth the trip itself. I learned more in 3 days than I did at any other event this year. See you there.

We get a lot of requests each and every day from all over the world for email marketing assistance. Ones this this though really make me giggle. Not for the fact that they want it all, want it now and want it basically at the lowest possible cost… but they are from Nigeria and they are spammers.

It takes some guts to send out actually requests like this. But it goes to show you that there must be plenty of people fielding these requests, helping the spam problem, if I am getting ones like this today.

Please, don’t contribute to the problem. Help move us forward.

Name: Ademola
Email: biggestade@yahoo.com
Comments: Hi, I need a 3rd party E-Marketing company that will serve my best interest at the least cost. They will send bulk emails, manage clients, manage subscription, and also generate reports; recipients will receive the emails in their inbox as opposed to going into bulk mails as SPAM. Please what are the options opened to me? I will need to send as many as over 500,000 emails at a shot. Thanks Ade…
Subscriber’s IP: 217.14.87.39
Appears to be from -, -, Nigeria

Microsoft’s Sender ID e-mail authentication technology can now be used without fear of the software giant’s intellectual property lawyers.

The Redmond, Wash., company said Monday it is making the “Sender ID Framework” available under its Open Specification Promise program. That means Microsoft will not sue anyone who creates products or services based on the e-mail technology.

The move is part of an effort to promote interoperability among commercial and open-source software products, and among Internet access providers that utilize e-mail authentication, Microsoft said in a statement.

“Users will be able to implement, commercialize and modify Microsoft’s patented e-mail authentication technology without having to sign a licensing agreement,” it said.

Read more

This one makes me cringe. Not only for the fact that I know many of the team at Yesmail (@Once) here in Portland, Oregon, but just how it happend. This is a MUST READ for any email marketers as a precidence has been set.

It seems that some unsubscribes failed to be taken care of due to spam filtering software at Yesmail kept an unsub request from getting to them. Ironic isn’t it? But painful. I know that no matter who we are we all deal with spam, most of us are the “Good Guys” but when a good guy falls for simply trying to protect its own company employees from spam and it gets fined.. that blows.

I would welcome some input from the community on what you think a solution would be.

I could see setting up another mail server (That would get hit with spam) without any protection, but that is just ready to cause a headache.

Ideas? Sorry guys. Seems like a bad ruling. Buy you a beer next time I see you walking through PDX.

FTC settles with e-mail marketer
Yesmail will pay a $50,717 civil fine
Grant Gross Today’s Top Stories or Other Standards/Legal Issues Stories

November 07, 2006 (IDG News Service) — Marketer Yesmail Inc. has agreed to pay a $50,717 civil penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission charges accusing it of sending unsolicited commercial e-mail after recipients asked it to stop.

The FTC alleged that Yesmail, doing business as @Once Corp., violated federal law by continuing to send unsolicited e-mail more than 10 business days after recipients asked that the e-mail stop.

Read On

Gmail for Mobile, a downloadable gmail application for java-enabled phones, launches this morning at 5 AM PST. Previously, users were only able to access gmail via a mobile browser. But for java-enabled phones, using the Gmail for Mobile application will significantly speed email use.

The application requres a java-enabled phone and a data plan (other mobile devices can still access Gmail through the browser). To download the application, go to gmail.com/app and follow the instructions. You can also get a link to the download URL directly via a text message by going to mobile.google.com and entering your phone number.

I’ve had the chance to test out Gmail for Mobile this AM on my blackberry. The software was simple to install, either go to gmail.com/app on your mobile phone, or go to http://www.google.com/mobile and it will send a package to your mobile device or phone to installthe application.

Something interesting was that it displays TEXT ONLY messages and ALL images are stripped out. Think about this as an extra delivery challenge when you are sending to gmail accounts. Also no links in the emails are clickable. It seems it is just a read email now, not an ACT email.

No I love my Gmail, and think that the application is smooth, BUT as an email marketer, you need to know that there are some challenges. I am going to do some rendering testing and link testing to see if I find out anything else. If so, I will report back to you. IF you find something, post it here.