If you’re in the, say: Widget Alignment business, you can be forgiven for thinking that your lead generation programs should be laser-focused on finding people that need their widgets aligned. From there, it’s a short and intuitive leap to simply asking people if they need their widgets aligned, or whether they’ve considered the benefits of alignment, so you can help ease their pain. But what of the people who desperately need their widgets aligned but just don’t know they have the problem? Or those that know they need alignment, but don’t consider it a priority? Just tell them how to solve it. MORE >>

Open rates are generally paid more attention than they’re due. The ugly truth is this: an open rate is NOT an accurate measure of how many people opened or read an email, neither is it an absolute measure of a subject line’s success. So why are there misconceptions about what an open rate means, and how can it be used as a valid statistic in measuring the success of email campaigns, if at all? Let’s start by defining what open rate means. “In addition, many webmail services and email clients block images by default, or the recipient may elect to receive text-only versions of an email. MORE >>

A couple of months ago, in a respected marketing Webzine, there appeared a case study detailing a software company that had gone to impressive lengths to make the most of their investment in marketing automation. The lead nurturing program they implemented included 40+ (yes, forty) separate and distinct tracks of emails, tailored to different audience segments, product interests, and stages in the lead lifecycle. That is, by most standards, a program of gordian complexity, and the effort and strategic thinking that went into its design should be lauded. But is all that necessary? Not really. MORE >>

I’ve written a number of times in this space about how to maximize response from email Webinar invitations. The campaign below from Parallels , a Swiss-based software company, provides a handy illustration of those techniques by displaying what key mistakes to avoid. For example: 1. Sell the offer, not the product. You don’t need to disguise your brand necessarily, but if the goal of the email is to get the reader to register for the event, the less that event appears to be a litany of reasons to buy your product, the better. Lead with compelling benefits, not just facts. Use images wisely. MORE >>

Success in paid search (PPC) is often defined as generating quality clicks and conversions at the lowest possible cost. But just as often, a successful search campaign depends as much on avoiding bad clicks as it does on generating good ones. In fact, any experienced search marketer will tell you that many of the quickest ways to improve PPC campaign performance fall into the category of eliminating wasteful spending. One of the easiest and most effective ways to improve the ROI from your search budget is through the use of negative keywords. Have suggestions for other useful negative keywords? MORE >>