Email Marketing by the Numbers: How to Use the World’s Greatest Marketing Tool to Take Any Organization to the Next Level

Delivering on the Promise

(Originally published by MediaPost)By Bill McCloskey CEO, Email Data Source Inc.Blog: http://blogs.mediapost.com/email_insider/?cat=8

Deliverability: This is the main topic of discussion these days in the world of email marketing. But I wonder if we spend nearly the time we devote to white listing, ISP relationships, and Goodmail to actually thinking about what is getting delivered in the first place. There is a decided lack of creativity that goes into our electronic epistles, with rare exceptions.

I continue to marvel at the time and care companies such as Lexus devote to their outbound marketing efforts, but yet they seem the exception that proves the rule. Alcoholic beverage companies might come up with a holiday email that has interest once a year, but where is the ongoing humor that Tanqueray expends on its messages?

For all the thought that Scion puts into its messaging when it targets the gay community, thousands of others find it difficult to come up with unique messaging for any market sector.

Generic images: Text chosen not for its impact, but for its ability to slip through spam filters. Copy with all the subtlety of the ads in the back pages of comic books. Where is the email that impacts my life, makes me laugh out loud, furthers the brand equity I have with the product or service?

As an industry, we’ve embraced mediocrity, becoming more concerned with permission than persuasion. We’ve embraced the transactional but turned our backs on the ...