Email Marketing Blog Roundup: Social Media, Sharing, Subscriber Lists, and Suing

3 minute read

A bumper roundup this week due to the last two Fridays having been taken up with development work for our shiny new Analyse section with all its lovely new charts and tables. Crunch time is finally over however, so please expect normal service to resume – for now.

So, what have people been talking about over the last couple of weeks? One particularly well covered topic has been social media, particularly with regards to how people use it for sharing content:

• Reportlet: FTAF vs. SWYN – some facts and figures from RetailEmailBlog.com
• Yahoo Points the Way to the ‘Social Inbox’ – Y!’s attempts at integration
• You know social media is pervasive when … – “Trapped girl calls for help on Facebook” (!)
• Inspire Interaction with Promo Emails – “4 Tactics to Boost Clicks, Encourage Social Sharing”
• Social Media Integration Survey – interesting results, but no real surprises
• Social Sharing: Who Cares?! – why should people want to share your content?
• Email Share-to-Social: Not Just About The Links – sensible advice from MediaPost’s Loren McDonald

Also of note is our very own Gareth Langston‘s ongoing series of posts on how to leverage social media:

• Join the Twitter Conversation
• The Facebook Platform Revisited
• Create a consistent brand image across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
• Adding bespoke content to Facebook Pages
• Social Media Insights

The above links are only a few highlights from the series – and Gareth’s got plenty more to say, so stay tuned for more insights.

Another perennial talking point that’s been discussed recently has been the maintenance, management, and proper use of your email lists:

• 20 Ways to Build Your Email List – sensible, and practical, recommendations
• How to Build a Good Email Newsletter List – the basics (and most important!)
• Email Marketing Minute: Hand Written Email Optin – short video with advice for retailers
• Opt-In, Opt-Out: Confusion Reigns – clarification and edification
• How to Overcome Email List Fatigue – keeping your lists fresh
• The (Hopefully) Final Word on Purchased Lists – in a nutshell: don’t buy lists

Not news, but still worth covering: testing remains one of the most powerful and, sadly, underused methods of optimising the effectiveness of your email campaigns. Thankfully however, it’s not being ignored by the email marketing sites out there, with plenty continuing to provide sage advice on the subject (including one of my favourite sites, Anne Holland’s Which Test Won?).

For our now-regular mention of activities in America, a quick note to say that in fine litigious tradition RPost have sued Goodmail for patent infringment. Interestingly, I came across a great collective noun proposed the other day: a fleece of lawyers – perfect.

Lastly, this week’s special mention goes once again to Mark Brownlow for the third addition to his series: Famous inboxes #3: Sauron, offering some rare proof that humour can exist alongside useful and insightful information.

Tags: Facebook, famous inboxes, Goodmail, humour, list maintenance, lists, Mark Brownlow, patents, reports, RPost, Sauron, sharing, social media, social sharing, split testing, testing, Twitter, Yahoo