It seems when it comes to email marketing the first issue discussed is relevancy, and the second is deliverability. Making it to the inbox involves a complex set of issues, and is a perennial challenge for email marketers.
The recent “Email Marketing Benchmark Summary Report” from Ascend2, found that
- 32% of marketers “Reaching the inbox” the most difficult challenge to email marketing success
- 27% of marketers wanted “improved deliverability optimization” upgrades from their ESPs
One reason why marketers find reaching the inbox a difficult challenge is that the definition of spam is no longer shouldered solely by the permissibility of sender; rather the responsibility is with the message itself. In this evolving ecosystem, subscribers’ expectations of email have risen to the point where an unwanted or untimely communication condemns the message to the spam folder.
Today’s podcast will attempt to answer the following question.
“How can I identify opportunities for improvement in my email marketing process to increase my deliverability and inbox placement rates to positively impact conversion?”
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Listen to Laura Atkins and Jeffery Rice on Marketing Techtalk
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Laura Atkins shares her thoughts on conversations with Google at M3AAWG
To help us answer that question, we have invited Laura Atkins, Founding Partner of Wise to the Word, a firm specializing in helping clients get email to the inbox.
In this program, we explore the impact of Google’s recent announcements at the 2014 M3AAWG conference in San Francisco. These include:
- Google’s expectation of senders to authenticate and use and maintain an opt-in process for subscribers (5:29)
o Specifically retailers, whose challenges to collect clean email address at the point of sale are mounting (9:01)
o The importance of separating transactional email and promotional email domains? (12:56) - Google’s new Feed Back Loop aimed to provide a report card to aid ESPs (18:29)
- Google’s UI change in how list-unsubscribe headers appears in the subscriber’s view of the email message.
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The podcast is 26 minutes long, the perfect length to listen to during the morning or evening commute.
“Google expects senders to authenticate and use and maintain an opt-in process for subscriber”
Guest: Laura Atkins, Founding Partner of Word to the Wise
Laura has over fifteen years’ worth of experience in helping companies mitigate and manage mailing risks, respond to spam complaints and interact more effectively with ISPs. She works with clients to define email-related goals and to identify and implement policy and procedural changes that further those goals. She regularly helps to mediate client delivery and blocking issues with anti-spam blacklists and internet service providers.
Before founding Word to the Wise, Laura led the outsourced abuse desk group for the Mail Abuse Prevention System (the industry’s first anti-spam blacklist). In this role, she advised ISPs on the most effective ways to manage their customers and complaints about their customer’s behavior.
With her background in molecular biology, Laura is well suited to investigating and troubleshooting complex processes from scientific and analytical perspectives, allowing her to expertly investigate and resolve email delivery problems for a variety of types of email senders.
Keep up with latest email deliverability news by visiting Laura’s Word to the Wise blog
host: W. Jeffrey Rice, Brick Street Software
W. Jeffrey Rice, Director of Marketing Strategy is responsible for sharing Brick Street Software’s brand through positive and helpful interactions with customers and the marketing and IT community. His eclectic background, ranging from sports entertainment to a leading global manufacturer has allowed him to excel at collaborating with cross-functional teams to successfully commute objectives, draw out subject matter expertise, and drive effective campaigns.
Jeff previously held the position of Sr. Research Analyst at MarketingSherpa. He examined email and mobile marketing’s best practices and authored a number of influential publications on the topic, including the 2012 Email Handbook and The Email Benchmark Report. Rice’s work has been cited in online publications including Forbes, HubSpot and Independent Retailer. In addition, Jeff has conducted live full-day strategic email certification classes with marketers from AT&T to Yamaha at the ESP User Conferences, Email Summits, and regional workshops.
Jeff holds a B.S. in Sports Management from Springfield College, and an MBA from Anna Maria College. Springfield College’s deep-seated humanics philosophy helped hone Jeff’s aptitude for teamwork and service.[/three_fourth_last]
About Marketing Tech Talk
Marketing Tech Talk shares research, thought leadership and best practices in digital marketing from both the perspective of marketers and technologists. Each week W. Jeffrey Rice and a special guest will discuss the latest technology, ideas, products, services, and approaches that positively influence marketing, sales, customer service, and most importantly the customer’s brand experience.
Image by Patrick Breitenbach (cc)
