Day Two - Email Marketing Summit

Although we are in Miami, the heat isn't on...Yesterday we attended an all day email certification course put on by Marketing Experiments which was great and so was the temperature of the room. Today, its like Im back in the office and its 67 degrees. I guess going from 400 people yesterday to over 800 today, they felt the need to accommodate or perhaps the fact that it's in the 80's and only February. Coming from Orlando, we didnt think the temp. would change as much as it has. Don't get me wrong, I love 80 degree whether but the Summit isn't being held out on the beach but I'm going to leave that in my feedback that next year it should :-). Anyway, just so I don't confuse you and make you think we changed our blog from an email marketing blog to a weather blog we'll get on to the good stuff.

Today was the official start to MarketingSherpa's Email Marketing Summit which started off with a Research Keynote from Stefan Tornquist, the Research Director of MarketingSherpa. Stefan provided the group with key takeaways on some tactics to follow this year as it relates to email marketing. One that I found was interesting was shortening the subject line. I completely agree that the subject line should try to stay under the 45 character limit which has been the previous standard however getting shorter than that, gets tough. However, I do agree that subject lines need to be short so it will only encourage our team to work harder at keeping the sub. lines short and to the point.

Later in the day I sat in on a thirty minute session put on by Cori Mozilo, the Interactive Marketing Manager of Cold Stone Creamery. We didn't get any ice cream however she did enlighten the group on how she uses a different vendor for each of her interactive needs. Her internal team only consists of three resources so it makes sense in her case. The main takeaway I received from Cori was that regardless of your situation or how big your team is, if you have the right experts, internal or external you can execute campaigns to be over the top successful.

MarketingSherpa Email Summit Day 1 - Email Certification Course

We just got through a day of email marketing best practices and training which is typically a few days worth of training conducted by Marketing Experiments. We have to give Marketing Experiments, Director, Flint McGlaughin our thanks again, as he not only crammed our heads with insightful email information but made it all very interesting by going over many examples they have previously tested in addition to live examples from the crowd. Marketing Experiments not only reiterated some of the best practices that we follow through on a daily basis but also shed light in other areas that we can take back to our clients and encourage them to try out some new tactics. One of the key takeaways from today's event that I couldn't agree more with is that optimization takes place in the mind, not on the landing page that you are trying to get a user to click through to - I'll expand more on this later with some other key insights we left with.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to what's in store over the next two days of the Summit. We'll be online throughout the two days so keep checking back for the latest updates on MarketingSherpa's Email Summit Agenda.

LIVE from the MarketingSherpa Email Summit

So it begins! Today is the first day we are here in Miami attending the MarketingSherpa EM@IL SUMMIT ’08 Expo & Awards. We have 3 full days of learning ahead of us. The first day is already complete and we have enough information to write for weeks. Just like with anything in life, even though you are doing something correctly, doesn’t mean it is the most effective way you should be doing it. We are learning how to test, test, test, test and test (see a pattern?) until you find the most effective ways! We will be blogging live from the summit to bring you real-time information that is shared with us that you THINK you already know, but trust us...you DON’T!

There are various speakers and attendees who have so much knowledge to share. I have already had the pleasure of speaking with Eric Stockton, the President of MarketingSherpa. It was an honor to steal 15 minutes of his time and speak one on one about email marketing. He assured me that email marketing is not dead, it is definitely on the rise and a promising piece of any marketing campaign. We joked about how easy email messaging and marketing really is and how we complicate it too frequently. He was adamant to stress that before we do any piece of marketing, whether email or blogging, to ask WHY are we doing this? Ask 2 main questions in order to begin planning and executing any piece of marketing, #1 What is your objective? #2 What is the BEST way to achieve your objective? It is key to dig to get these answers before you dive into it. Do not rely on what you think as a marketer, seek answers and correct information from who you are marketing to. Its as simple as the basic sales rule, Know Your Audience!

After I spoke with Eric, everything we touched on was stressed in the presentation of the day. There is so much to share on email marketing, stay tuned to receive the knowledge transfer we are going to be communicating to you for free!! Can't beat that.

Upcoming Email MarketingSherpa Summit

One week until Marketing Sherpa's Annual Email Marketing Summit and I can't wait. Not only is there a lengthy list of great attendees but its my first summit. Im really looking forward to the hearing others case studies in regards to email marketing success, struggles and lessons learned. We'll be blogging from the event so be sure to tune in for the latest.