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| July 24 2003 Dear Reader, I'm all fired up today about the FCC's new opt-in ruling on fax -- and what it may mean for e-mail (see my Publisher's note). Also in this issue, some words of wisdom on PDF from Jakob Nielsen and lots of stats on e-mail from DoubleClick. Take a minute now to catch up on what's going on -- you'll be glad you did. Table of Contents 1. Publisher's Note: The FCC Mandates Opt-in...for Fax Marketing Jeanne S. Jennings 2. PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox 3. Trend Central: Email Marketing Trends 2003 Arial Software 4. Effective Email Creative Strategy Target Marketing 5. Email Delivery Summit Notes: Warring Camps Reach Peace Accord & Start Solving Sp*m and Over-Filtering Marketing Sherpa's Email Sherpa 6. Stat Heaven: Q1 2003 Email Trend Report DoubleClick Sponsor  Content 1. Publisher's Note: The FCC Mandates Opt-in...for Fax Marketing Jeanne S. Jennings, July 24 2003 Last month, along with adding the do-not-call registry for telemarketing, the FCC eliminated the 'established business relationship' clause for fax marketing -- and mandated explicit permission in writing to send broadcast faxes, even to existing customers. Can e-mail be far behind? Click through to read my take on all this. 2. PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, July 14 2003 I meet lots of publishers sending out PDF versions of their e-mail newsletters. If you fall into this category, you'll want to read this summary of a study Nielsen did on PDF -- although it does not specifically talk about e-mail, it does raise a number of usability issues that apply equally to e-mail and web pages. Bottom line: Don't do it! PDF is great for things people are going to print and read, but if the goal is for them to read online (and/or to click on links) then PDF should not be your format of choice. 
3.Trend Central: Email Marketing Trends 2003 Arial Software, July 2003 While not as detailed as the DoubleClick report (see below), I still found this white paper useful for some basics, like the prevalence of multi-part e-mail messages (76% use them, more than I would have guessed) and personalization (56% are doing it, less than I anticipated). Good data to have when making decisions about your e-mail program. The link above should automatically open a PDF version of the report in your browser; Or you can visit Arial Software's White Papers Page and click on 'Download PDF' under 'Email Marketing Trends 2003' 4. Effective Email Creative Strategy Pat Friesen, Target Marketing I confess -- Pat's one of the copywriters I work with frequently and she's become a friend. But that aside, this is a great article on writing for e-mail. Her premise -- that the same basic elements guiding good direct response copy guide good e-mail copy, are dead on. A good read for anyone who writes or edits marketing e-mails. 5. Email Delivery Summit Notes: Warring Camps Reach Peace Accord & Start Solving Sp*m and Over-Filtering Anne Holland, Marketing Sherpa's Email Sherpa, July 17, 2003 Concerned about the opt-in e-mail you send being filtered? Then we've got good news. A sit down of the Email Management Roundtable earlier this month went very well, with members opening up lines of communication between ISPs, e-mail broadcast firms, e-mail marketers and filter program firms. The war hasn't yet been won, but bringing all interested parties to the negotiating table resulted in some positives for all marketers and may have opened the door to constructive solutions. 6. Stat Heaven: Q1 2003 Email Trend Report DoubleClick, May 2003 Can't believe I missed putting this in an earlier issue. There's good news this quarter -- average open rates and click-throughs both increased (to 39.2% and 8.9% respectively) as bounced declined (12.5%). All this even with increased volume of mail sent. For the details, including some great breakdowns by key industries, check out this four-page PDF. The link above should automatically open the report in PDF format in your browser; Or you can visit DoubleClick's Knowledge Central Page and click on 'DoubleClick Q1 2003 Email Trend Report under the 'Title' Column. Closing Happy Summer! We'll publish again on Thursday, August 14. Best, Jeanne publisher@jenningsreport.com |
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The
Jennings Report
