Sherpa Email Summit & M3AAWG Meeting – Twitter takeaways

Two major email events have been held this week: The MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2014 in Las Vegas, and the 30th General Meeting of the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group in San Francisco. If you – like me – weren’t able to attend, you may want to have a look at what those marketing and deliverability folks shared with us on Twitter:

Figure: Photo collage from #SherpaEmail

Agree with these #SherpaEmail-retweetables?

• “As products become more complex, the point at which complexity overwhelms decision comes sooner and sooner” – @danari…
• Top Takeaways from the MarketingSherpa Email Summit – Day 1 http://t.co/wFviVRBSQm by @brookeburdge #SherpaEmail
• “Your headline, is essentially, a pickup line.” – @FlintsNotes #SherpaEmail
• Marketing automation does NOT create the process for you, it helps you automate the process you create #SherpaEmail
• The paradox of marketing: Our primary work is to “say” but our primary art is to “hear” @FlintsNotes #SherpaEmail
• “People are becoming less tolerant of a crappy mobile experience.” @meladorri #SherpaEmail
• Make your subscribers feel like they are part of something special. Don’t just sell to them. #SherpaEmail
• The email subject line needs to “justify the send.” <– kinda dig that. #SherpaEmail
• Don’t send more or less emails. Send better more relevant emails. #SherpaEmail
• The winning campaigns of the 2014 Email Awards now available for download compliments of @ExactTarget http://t.co/MZs7…
• “Personalization always begins with listening. Saying the right thing is more important than saying things right” @Flin…
• In summary: you’re sending emails to humans. Treat them like people. Email isn’t an ad platform; it’s a communication channel.…
• “There are no expert marketers. There are only experienced marketers and expert testers…” Dr. Flint McGlaughlin #Sherp…
• The marketer is the “customer philosopher” of the organization. #SherpaEmail
• “The email should not be an interruption; it should be the next part in the conversation.” – Dr. Flint McGlaughlin #SherpaEma…
• Formula for any marketing campaign: Ask yourself is it RIU? R(elevant) I(mportant) U(rgent) #SherpaEmail
• “People are becoming less and less tolerant of crappy mobile email experiences.” – semi-paraphrased quote from @meladorri #Sh…
• The only person who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper #wahh #SherpaEmail – Chris Hawver
• The more we can automate, the more we can focus on strategy #SherpaEmail @dotMailer
• The more segmentation you do, the more value you should drive from your customers #bigdata #SherpaEmail @dotMailer @skipfidu…
• The marketer does not drive traffic, the marketer attracts people #SherpaEmail
• “B2B marketing does not have to be boring. Boring is a choice.” #SherpaEmail
• Are people who read marketing copy a different species? Then stop writing to them like they are. #SherpaEmail
• Never present a solution until people recognize there’s a problem. #SherpaEmail
• “Adequacy is the enemy of excellence.” #SherpaEmail
• #testify Focus on one specific CTA. Don’t distract your subscribers with too many options. #SherpaEmail
• Many email marketers are afraid to be honest and candid with their subscribers, but subscribers usually appreciate & like …
• Consistency: People want to act consistently with their traits, beliefs, commitments, identity and previous actions #sherpaema…
• people do not open emails in th pursuit of pleasure, but the elimination of annoyance – @FlintsNotes #SherpaEmail
• Challenge all your collateral with “so what?” Make sure it’s important, urgent and relevant #SherpaEmail
• Testing is the only way to know what works for your audience. Subject line tool = 32% accurate #SherpaEmail http://t.co/iG…
• cool to see @FlintsNotes using http://t.co/jpHWslP6wV to test subject lines in his quick-win clinic at #SherpaEmail cc @wor…
• Be more modest about your intuitions. You can be wrong. Try different things. #SherpaEmail @danariely
• Mobile is more than just design. Context is important. @LorenMcDonald #SherpaEmail
• Mobile Design Tip: iPhone button size, per Apple developer guidelines – 44px by 44px. #SherpaEmail
• People come up w/ fantastic justifications after they make decisions, which blinds them to the real reasons. – @danarie…
• Don’t do things in your emails because they’re new and fun and shiny. Do them because they’re right for your subscribers. …
• don’t worry about what you don’t control, focus on what you do control – @LorenMcDonald #SherpaEmail
• Subscriber engagement supersedes whatever is thrown at you, from Gmail tabs, to mobile, to whatever else #sherpaemail @Loren…
• Responsive design is about preventing a decrease in engagement, not increasing it. @LorenMcDonald #SherpaEmail
• “Responsive testing can’t be a one and done.” #SherpaEmail
• key to being a top influencer at #SherpaEmail: sit near a charger at all times
• For email marketers…”clarity trumps persuasion”. #SherpaEmail #FlintNotes
• 3 of the 4 most popular email clients are mobile devices. Think responsive in order to stay ahead! #SherpaEmail @meladorri
• #Dell giving props to @audiencepoint for micro-personalization based on send time optimization. Right there with you! …
• @Dell using animated gifs in email to show flexibility of the new flip is forward thinking with old school tricks #winning …
• Ooooo la la! Loving this content calendar #SherpaEmail http://t.co/W49plOfyFM
• “B2B marketing does not have to be boring. Boring is a choice” @cnurns from SunGard used zombies as inspiration for deman…
• Tim Kachuriak’s Optimization Success Story http://t.co/R3yZs1jptS #SherpaEmail
• Before you set a goal for a target # of leads, figure out how your company defines a lead. #SherpaEmail
• the value in marketing data is in its potential to predict customer behavior #SherpaEmail
• Asking how leads to information. Asking why leads to wisdom. #SherpaEmail #BringOnTheGrayHair
• #SherpaEmail empathy is the essence of the marketers intuition
• Q. The most important driver of the company’s success? A. The customer’s decision patterns.#SherpaEmail
• Nice: “We use the geography of the page to control the chronology of the mind.” @FlintsNotes #SherpaEmail
• Amen. action without contemplation is dangerous – @FlintsNotes #SherpaEmail
• “We all have gaps in understanding the customer.” -@FlintNotes | Testing can help to fill those gaps. #SherpaEmail
• Clarity trumps persuasion on landing pages. Clearly state your value proposition. #SherpaEmail
• Action is overrated, action should be grounded in contemplation #SherpaEmail
• Email design by committee ultimately leaves the intended recipient OUT #SherpaEmail
• the key is to optimize the thought sequence, not the email @FlintsNotes #SherpaEmail

I posted some more on emailmarketing.de here and here if you like.

Also check out some M3AAWG notes:

• Seed list addresses are not necessarily indicative of deliverability rates due to changing spam classifiers and personalization …
• Microsoft: if you don’t have your authentication in order, get it done. #m3aawg30
• Google: Be sure to send the full headers of the email along with clear and concise description for support cases #m3aawg30
• Google: Some blocking issues are transient so you don’t always have to start making big changes if you start getting blocked #m3…
• AOL: If you are getting blocked, continuing to do what you are doing can make the problem worse. #m3aawg30
• Senders/Receivers are stuck in something like the Prisoner’s Dilemma 🙁 –> non-optimal strategy #m3aawg30
• N-Gram analysis of soft bnc text messages complemented by human eval helps sort through random strings and helps abuse desk #m3a…
• Microsoft: Core customer is not the email sender, it is the mailbox owner #m3aawg30
• Microsoft: Try to self-diagnose blocking issues. Don’t just immediately ask for IPs to be unblocked without understanding cause…
• Improving text in soft bounces: why rate limit? content, reputation or volume? #m3aawg30
• Sender wants to know: what do u think of me/my mail; what r u doing abt it; what should I do abt it? #m3aawg30
• Google: Following best practice guidelines will improve your chance of getting to the inbox and increases customer trust #m3aawg…
• Good comm: hard bounce, complaint rpts; bad comm: soft bnc; can we get rcvr opinion of msg content? #m3aawg30
• Email senders depend on trust and communication #m3aawg30
• Google: Sometimes normally good senders are blurring the lines with spammers #m3aawg30
• Email is “easy” – if all your users fit on one server and don’t use all your network bandwidth #m3aawg30
• Google: All major mailbox providers publish best practice guidelines for senders. They should find & follow these to the letter…
• Yahoo: protecting the end user comes first. Everything else is secondary #m3aawg30
• Microsoft: Think about mails that don’t ever get opened and how users interact (or don’t) with it #m3aawg30
• Microsoft: JMRP feed available for senders to understand what customers think about their mail #m3aawg30
• Microsoft: Provide a set of tools to help senders debug their email deliverability problems #m3aawg30
• AOL: Don’t just look at who the sender is or their history, but what is in the content that might be driving higher complaints #m3aawg30