Chad White

Articles by Chad All articles by Chad

• What Verizon-AOL Deal Could Mean For Email Marketers in Email Insider on 05/19/2015
  

  While all of the buzz around Verizon's $4.4 billion purchase of AOL is about adding more content, video, and ad generation to the mobile company's distribution platform, the acquisition will also likely affect email marketers.

• How Would An Email Tax Change Email Marketing? in Email Insider on 04/20/2015
  

  On April Fools' Day, Forbes ran a story about how Congress was considering a tax on email by amending the Internet Tax Freedom Act the next time it comes up for renewal. It was a great gag, and while I think there's zero chance of any kind of email tax coming into being, it's interesting to think about how the email marketing industry would change if some kind of tax were levied.

• Is Email Marketing Cheap -- Or Does It Have A High ROI? in Email Insider on 03/24/2015
  

  How you -- and, more importantly, your boss -- answer that question easily predicts the future success of your email program. Here's why.

• Opens, Clicks, And Blocks In The Third Age Of Email Deliverability in Email Insider on 02/22/2015
  

  In the First Age of Email Deliverability, there were no rules and few if any consequences for bad behavior. In the Second Age, ISPs armed their users with the "report spam" button -- and senders that received too many complaints saw their emails junked or blocked. In the Third Age, which we're in now, ISPs factor engagement metrics into their filtering decisions, with those decisions made on the individual as well as global level. These changes mean that email subscribers not only have to tolerate marketers' emails, but have to at least occasionally engage with them -- which in turn means that marketers can't bloat their email lists with inactive subscribers to lower their spam complaint rates. In the Third Age of Email Marketing, the need for list quality keeps list-size ambitions in check.

• The New Litmus Test For A Great Email Marketing Program in Email Insider on 01/27/2015
  

  I used to say the hallmark of a great email marketing program was a robust A/B testing program. It's not just because I consider A/B testing a key optimization tool and a vital part of "listening" to subscribers, but because if a brand is taking the time to follow a rigorous A/B testing calendar and methodically building on lessons learned, then chances are very high it's doing lots of other things right. While I still believe in the power of testing and what it signifies about an email program, I now have a new litmus test for email marketing greatness for B2C companies: Does the majority of your email marketing revenue and engagement come from triggered emails?

• Quick Wins For Email Marketers In 2015 in Email Insider on 12/29/2014
  

  Going into the new year, instead of focusing on the new, let's focus on the easy. Here are my picks for low-effort/high-return initiatives for email marketers in 2015:

• Black Friday Week Trends In Email Marketing  in Email Insider on 12/02/2014
  

  The holiday season is always in motion, as consumer behavior changes and retailers jockey to adjust to those changes and stand out. Retailers' email marketing strategies also continue to shift, as an important part of their holiday strategy. Here are a couple of trends from Black Friday Week this year:

• Blowing Up the Paid-Owned-Earned Media Model  in Email Insider on 11/05/2014
  

  The paid-owned-earned media model has become dated. Social media, SMS/MMS, and email marketing have been awkwardly forced into the owned media slot, where they don't really belong. It's time to expand the model and acknowledge the uniqueness of these newer channels as well as our far from absolute control over them.

• This Year's Email Marketing Twists: Holiday Predictions in Email Insider on 10/07/2014
  

  Behind the sounds of witches cackling and batwings flapping, I can already hear the faint jingling of Christmas bells. Honestly, it's not all that faint. The holiday season is already showing up in aisles at stores like Costco and in inboxes from brands like Toys "R" Us, Ikea, Sony, Hanna Andersson, Sephora, and The Shopping Channel. Every holiday season is a little different. Here are my thoughts on how the email marketing holiday season will be different this year.

• Don't Use The Wrong Metrics To Measure Success in Email Insider on 09/09/2014
  

  In the new second edition of my book, "Email Marketing Rules,"I focus more on measuring success than on anything else except permission. That's because too often email marketers are using the wrong yardstick to measure the effectiveness of their programs. Here are three examples of how success is often measured incorrectly, leading to underperformance:

Comments by Chad All comments by Chad

• Email Marketers Need A Quickie Message For Wearable Campaigns by Jack Loechner (Research Brief on 07/15/2015)
  

  Marketers can best optmize the Apple Watch email experience by using watch-HTML, which is a new version of HTML recognized by Apple's watches. For all the details >> https://litmus.com/blog/how-to-send-hidden-version-email-apple-watch

• What Verizon-AOL Deal Could Mean For Email Marketers by Chad White (Email Insider on 05/19/2015)
  

  Hi, Len. I'm not suggesting that Verizon will help rebuild AOL, but rather that AOL can help Verizon with its email platform. AOL is a dying brand, but when folded into Verizon their assets (including AOL Mail) can make a meaningful impact. Of course, time will tell, but there are very few email clients with significant marketshare. AOL Mail is one of them (if just barely).

• It's Time For Email's Identity To Match Its Definition by April Mullen (Email Insider on 05/07/2015)
  

  Email marketers are experts at direct marketing, so it makes total sense to give them more control over other direct channels like SMS and push messaging. But I don't know that I would generalize the term "email" and divorce it from its unique platform and channel considerations.

• How Would An Email Tax Change Email Marketing? by Chad White (Email Insider on 04/20/2015)
  

  George, you're absolutely right. The email industry has evolved well beyond the point where any kind of bonded sender "pay for delivery" system is necessary. The Forbes article just got me thinking about those old attempts to defeat spam, and how permission and relevance are the current ways to safely pay your way into inboxes.

• How Would An Email Tax Change Email Marketing? by Chad White (Email Insider on 04/20/2015)
  

  Pete, for larger brands, design and other costs are small relative to email marketing revenue. At scale, even doing a mediocre job at email marketing can be very profitable. Of course, for much smaller brands those cost can be more significant.

• How Would An Email Tax Change Email Marketing? by Chad White (Email Insider on 04/20/2015)
  

  Craig, thanks for the extra background.

• Is Email Marketing Cheap -- Or Does It Have A High ROI? by Chad White (Email Insider on 03/24/2015)
  

  Pete, you're totally right. When you've reached the far side of the sophistication curve, your returns will start to diminish because you're fully optimized. But pretty much no one is in that situation yet. Most brands have lots of opportunities to increase incremental returns through smart investments in sophistication, like doing the things you suggested. But, yes, I'd love to see brands drive their ROI back down to $40...after driving it to over $80 first.

• Quick Wins For Email Marketers In 2015 by Chad White (Email Insider on 12/29/2014)
  

  Hi, Andrew. Happy New Year! Yes, admittedly, implementing predictive intelligence can be challenging for some companies. I worked with some of our consultants on compiling this list and a few did take issue with calling PI a quick win, although I do believe it fits the "low-effort/high-return" billing. One argued: "The ease of implementation depends on the complexity of the retailer. It makes such a dramatic difference in revenue, it’s probably worth keeping in." So I did. But your point, Andrew, is well taken.

• Quick Wins For Email Marketers In 2015 by Chad White (Email Insider on 12/29/2014)
  

  Bill, I appreciate the changes that FreshAddress has made to its ECOA service over the years in response to pressure from privacy and permission advocates, but I still believe that it fundamentally violates privacy and permission. Perhaps I'll write a future column on why I think it's an unwise business practice and has a dim future in a subscriber-centric world (vs. a marketer-centric one). For the time being, let's agree to disagree.

• Quick Wins For Email Marketers In 2015 by Chad White (Email Insider on 12/29/2014)
  

  Like I said, 25 months is the outer limit and that you should work back from there to the shorter time frame that's appropriate for your brand's audience and practices. Respectfully, I never recommend ECOA. I consider it a violation of privacy and of permission. Never doing ECOA is one of the 11 never-break rules in my book.

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