Kelly Sullivan says, “Who are you? What influences your emotions, actions, and decisions? There are no simple answers to these questions. Yet marketers tragically try to pigeonhole people into them with retargeting ads. But people are complex. Marketers and brands know this but most don’t like to admit it. We prefer to believe our ads are the best in the business. We think they’ll immediately get the attention of our intended audience, and will solve all their problems. The unfortunate reality is no one cares about our ads or us. Why? Life is chaotic. Life is full of distractions... [...]

Julie Ask says, “Your customers are inundated with messages every day from friends or family, work colleagues, and marketers among others. Notifications from their banks, news organizations and fitness bands also land on their mobile phones. Let me show you the home screen of my iPhone. A summary of my communication (or lack thereof) shows: 24,998 unread personal emails (okay, mostly from marketers) 4,937 unopened work emails 272 unopened SMS messages 45 unopened/read messages on WeChat (these are from marketers) 0 unread notifications from Facebook (and I average 23 per day) 0 unread notifications... [...]

Brian Balfour says, “There’s one word that never escapes us in the business world, no matter how hard we try: networking. I work in the world of growth, marketing, and software. Over time, I’ve received hundreds of emails for advice on how others can adopt the growth framework. Most of these emails look like this: Hi Brian, I’m Joe Schmo from X Startup. We are in the Y industry. Our problem is we aren’t growing as fast as we’d like to“. How to write networking emails that won’t wind up in the trash Mashable  [...]

Andrew King says, “The email design and coding process is broken for many companies. Email marketers are spending a disproportionate amount of their lives trying to figure out why Gmail has absolutely destroyed their HTML, rather than working on the things that can actually make a measurable impact on the performance of their email program. This is what the traditional email design and coding process looks like for many companies: Gather images and copy for your campaign. Add your text and images directly to your HTML template through one of the various email-friendly editors”. Why... [...]

Daniel Beulah says, “One of the most difficult aspects of list cleansing isn’t always the drop in numbers — it’s convincing senior leadership why it’s necessary. During MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2015, Courtney Eckerle, Manager of Editorial Content, MarketingSherpa, sat down in the Media Center with Jeffrey Anderson, Digital Marketing Manager, A Place For Mom. The company is a for-profit senior care referral service. Anderson explained why it’s important to cleanse your list of inactive users and how you can convince the senior leadership of your organization that list cleansing... [...]

Olivia Dello Buono says, “If you haven’t heard, AWeber is back for round two of ASCEND Digital Marketing Summit. We couldn’t wait to introduce you to our incredible lineup of industry experts and thought leaders – so we won’t. We’re hosting three special #AWeberHour Twitter chats, so you can get to know our roster before all of the magic happens this October. Our second chat will take place Wednesday, August 5th from 2-3 p.m. EDT. You’ll hear from two content experts who will share the ways that you can create content that converts your readers into loyal customers. And if this... [...]

Niti Shah says, “In the world of email marketing, opens and clicks are everything, which means email marketers are always testing ways to improve these metrics. We’ll tweak subject lines, calls-to-action, images, headers, layout, link positioning, copy, length, tone, content … the list goes on and on. Through all of this testing, there’s one hard truth we’ve discovered: Aside from proper list segmentation, nothing boosts opens and clicks as well as an old school, plain-text email.  Here’s how we came to that conclusion. Beyond Deliverability The (relatively)... [...]

Mashable team says, “Well, maybe not your life. But certainly your reputation with people of good taste. Helvetica, the hip font of choice for brands and typeface nerds, is the default font setting for Apple Mail. Gmail defaults to Arial, a font one designer called Helvetica’s “ugly bastard son.” If the browser doesn’t support Arial, Gmail will use Helvetica instead. While Helvetica is beloved by design nerds for its neutrality, its uniformity and lack of consistent spacing make it hard to read in large chunks of text. “The letters are too close together,”... [...]

Kristen Dunleavy says, “So you have a website, you’re on Facebook, and you’re working on content for your blog. You might be wondering, “Where the heck does email fit into this equation?” and: “How am I supposed to find time for email marketing?” Good news: Email marketing can complement any marketing strategy. Even better news: It shouldn’t take more than about an hour of your time each week. Here’s how you can use email with each part of your marketing strategy”. How Email Fits Into Your Marketing Strategy Aweber Blog  [...]

Sophie Turton says, “Instead of creating content, we should be creating opportunities for content creation: instagrammable moments, inspiring experiences. And instead of broadcasting, we should create opportunities for conversation. Audiences are in control of their own digital story. Businesses are no longer in the driving seat but instead must adopt the role of navigator, cleverly guiding the user’s journey, but ultimately remaining vulnerable to the whimsy of the consumer. The expression ‘content is king’ has become something of an industry cliche and, like all good cliches, it’s... [...]