It’s no secret that the right tech partners make us stronger. In fact, we’ve dedicated a whole event series to them that’s known around here as The Rising Tide. Once a month, we invite one of our partners to the office to give them a chance to show off their latest tools and capabilities and generally talk shop (and hit up the office kegerator) with… Read more »
The world of email is always changing. The latest update? Google’s promotions tab updates. In an effort to create more value for end users, Google has re-designed the promotions tab so that it is more visually appealing, more relevant, and customizable. Currently, Google is one of the biggest and most important inbox providers worldwide with over 1.5 billion active users. In fact, SendGrid’s 2018 Global… Read more »
This month’s edition of The Rising Tide featured our technology partner MessageGears, an Atlanta-based company that finds cutting-edge solutions for building data-driven email programs on a super-sized scale. They call themselves a hybrid email marketing platform for enterprise organizations because of the highly flexible model they use to consolidate Big Data. We recently interviewed Will Devlin, senior director of marketing for MessageGears, about email,… Read more »
In a recent blog post, we explained just how important reporting is to any marketing campaign. All the numbers and data collected from marketing efforts tell a story, but often there is too much noise to find the important information. In email marketing specifically, hundreds of thousands of data points are created with each mailing. Not all of this data is actually useful and it… Read more »
The concept of the sales funnel is well-ingrained in any marketer’s brain. We all ask ourselves how each initiative put into market is going to impact the bottom line. At the end of the day, we’re all beholden to the almighty dollar. But therein lies the problem at the heart of the funnel model. It’s all about US. How can WE make money? How can… Read more »
Email preference centers have been around for a long time, and far too many haven’t been updated since they were first published. Let’s talk through the necessities and nice-to-haves of a solid preference center and banish the boring forms of the past. Default vs. Hyper-Customized Preferences The level of complexity for most legacy preference centers tends to be low. Most, if not all, ESPs… Read more »
Carefully curated strategy within email will only get you so far. Rather than the end-game, it’s more of an entry point from which a customer has to take another action (clicking) to then complete the desired conversion. Whether it be a purchase, event registration, file download or other action, the email is often only the first step of many in the customer’s journey. A disconnect… Read more »
In a recent blog post, we began to scratch the surface of the wealth of information available in Google Analytics. It may seem strange to focus so much on web behavior when email is our channel. But, most emails seek to do one thing: elicit that elusive click. And then what? Where does the subscriber go? What do they do? Developing a link tagging structure… Read more »
Our friends at Litmus have recently published some fascinating research on email service providers (ESPs), complete with handy tips for anyone hoping to level up their relevancy game. Back in August, they outlined some tips for crafting a better ESP RFP. Now, they’re taking a closer look at the challenges a company can expect to face once they’re in the process of switching. Considering more… Read more »
Ask 100 email geeks what a template is and you’ll get 100 different answers. Full disclosure, that drives us a tad bit crazy. As thought leaders at BrightWave, we seek to define for ourselves and our community what exactly a template is, so that we can all have a lingua franca: It’s not a single email send, but a multi-use layout or system that can… Read more »
Email has seen a rebirth due to the explosion of data and marketing technologies. The old playbook is increasingly obsolete and new ways of utilizing the channel are emerging. Are you still attached to an older way of thinking about email? Let’s find out… If one of the 1960’s Mad Men had access to email as a marketing channel, it would likely end up… Read more »
The following blog post was written by Movable Ink. Customer data is the key to relevant marketing, and intelligent content is making personalization more accessible than it’s ever been. And while customers generally love to see content that’s tailored to them, there can be a huge disconnect is that content isn’t executed correctly. People don’t always realize that their taps, clicks, and cookies are creating a… Read more »
Over 28% of brands are at least a little dissatisfied (sometimes a lot dissatisfied) with their email service provider (ESP). That’s not a great number. But when you consider the complexity of the ESP selection process, it’s also not too surprising. There are literally hundreds of email service providers. As a result of this massive ESP ecosystem, finding the right fit for your brand’s… Read more »
BrightWave is a technology agnostic agency that works with virtually all of the major marketing clouds and email platforms, including Salesforce Marketing Cloud to enhance customer relationships. Our experience has given us a unique insight into how the Google Analytics 360 integration enhances the Salesforce Marketing Cloud offering as detailed below. Last fall, Salesforce and Google announced a partnership integrating Google Analytics 360–… Read more »
Buzzword warning: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Your ears pricked up a little, didn’t they? And no wonder. What makes machine learning so appealing is the idea that a computer can help make the optimization decisions that a small or overwhelmed marketing team cannot. Better results and increased ROI with reasonably less effort? Yes, please. Every digital marketer knows they want it (need it!)… Read more »
Emarsys recently launched their “Marketer + Machine” podcast series, which focuses on how to become a better marketer by leveraging technology. We were excited when BrightWave President Raj Choudhury was asked to kickoff the series as its first guest. Raj’s session— which you can find below— explores how technology and the delivery of marketing communications has largely become a commodity. All too many marketers start… Read more »
Is there a total subscriber number you have been chasing, but has been elusive? Could your email program have a churn problem? Yes, I said the dreaded word, ‘Churn’. More specifically, is it a ‘whole email program’ churn problem or is it a ‘specific customer segment’ churn problem? Every brand has customer segments. Some are easily identified while others can be more difficult to… Read more »
Emarsys offers valuable marketing insights from industry leaders in their “What I Want Marketers to Know” series, including CEO Simms Jenkins. From the biggest challenge marketers face to how technology is revolutionizing their roles, read the full interview to find out what advice Jenkins has for the digital marketing community.
When BrightWave client Char-Broil needed to find an email service provider (ESP) just as innovative as their cooking products, they turned to their email agency of record. In turn, we partnered with Emarsys to consolidate Char-Broil’s multiple existing data sources and continue collecting and organizing future customer data. To get the highlights on the collaboration, take a look at the infographic Emarsys created below. To… Read more »
From time to time, we like to dig into our own inboxes to get a fresh perspective on what’s happening in our industry in real-time. Pushing aside the buzzwords and hype allows us to see what the real marketers behind real brands are sending. This week, we didn’t have to open a single email to spot one trend – the value of the from name…. Read more »
BrightWave assembled a team that worked tirelessly to know our business as well as we do. This dedication gives me confidence their recommendations are well-vetted and on point to help grow our business.
