The eec Speakers Bureau continues its efforts to evangelize email marketing and industry thought leaders within our membership.

The next major launch, the re-launch of the eec's Expert Channel on YouTube, will also take place in conjunction with the Email Evolution Conference in February.  During the launch, qualified attendees will have the opportunity to film a segment and the channel will be promoted during the conference and via traditional and social media. For more information, contact Luke Glasner and Lana McGilvray.

A new initiative to ensure blogs across our membership are posted on a much more regular basis is also underway.  If you are a member and have a relevant blog, article or whitepaper you would like to see posted here on the eec blog, we are offering Compendium access to those members interested in promoting relevant eec content.  Please send your request for a Compendium account to Ali Swerdlow, or you can submit your content to her or to Dori Thompson.  Please ensure that blog submissions are well-edited and non-promotional to acclerate acceptance.

We are actively ramping up our social channels, and if you have not already done so, please activate your participation in the eec’s new Facebook page as we will be posting across all of our social channels.

- eec Speakers Bureau Advisory Committee co-chairs Lana McGilvray and Dori Thompson

With the calendar rolling quickly toward November and only a few months left before we see you all at the Email Evolution Conference 2012, we have a few exciting items we’d like to share on behalf of the entire Speakers Bureau.

First, if you haven’t participated in the eec Speakers Bureau Advisory Committee, or if you've considered joining, here’s what you should know. The Speakers Bureau Advisory Committee’s mission is to evangelize email as a key business driver for brands and publishers. It’s purposefully broad because we all know it’s a multi-channel world in which email has many applications that drive business. 

To fulfill our mission we place approved eec speakers across shows we manage, we serve as a speaker clearinghouse for organizations seeking qualified email marketing experts for their events and forums and we bring great content to external audiences. Qualifying to speak is easy; members can simply visit the Speakers Bureau page.

Second our working plan for 2012. During 2012, the Committee will execute against three key goals. We are currently planning how to best deliver and would love more involvement if anything strikes a chord.

1. We will begin utilizing social groups including LinkedIn and Facebook to grow our speakers bureau following, participation and engagement.
2. We will revamp our YouTube Channel so that the latest thought-leadership across our membership is available to communities interested in accessing our content.
3. We will expand our eec blog activity to get more and better content out to external audiences.

These three goals were selected in addition to the everyday work the committee does of reviewing and programming content across events and programs. If you have other ideas, please let us know by posting in the comments section below.

- Dori Thompson & Lana McGilvray

We're looking for email and digital marketing rockstars to present at the Email Evolution Conference 2012 in Florida!  Your proposal(s) must be submitted by Monday, August 1st in order to be considered.

Check out the sessions from EEC11 to get an idea of the types of submissions we select.

Contact Ali with any questions or if you're interested in exhibit or sponsorship opportunities.

If you ask which standard features to look for in an email marketing system, you’re asking the wrong question. The correct question is what do you need. Here’s why…

"It depends."
Recently at a marketing conference, one of the speakers stated that consultants are notorious for starting their answers with phrases like, "It depends."

Clients might think that’s a runaround. It’s not. Quite often, the answer to a client’s question isn’t, “If you do X, you will get Y”. Quite often it’s, “It depends.”

That’s also the way to start off any answer to any question about the features to look for when considering an email marketing system. It depends on what your needs are.

If choosing an ESP or email marketing system meant looking for standard features only, we likely wouldn't have over 100 ESPs to choose from. If there were standard features that narrowed down your choice and made comparisons easy, many of us would likely be out of business.

In reality, email marketing systems come with a wide range of capabilities in order to fulfill a wide range of business requirements. As a result, comparing email marketing systems or ESPs is like comparing apples to oranges.

If you can't simply start with a checklist, then where do you start? You start with your requirements. That is your checklist. The question shouldn’t be, "What features should we look for?" Rather, "What features do we need?"

Two factors you must consider
There are two factors you must consider no matter the ESP or email marketing system. One is the deliverability rate and the other is uptime. No matter the provider or system you choose, the deliverability rate and the uptime have to be as high as possible.

Uptime is easy to determine: Ask.

However, with deliverability "it depends" because it will vary for everyone. If one ESP gets a 97.3% deliverability rate for one customer and list, it doesn’t follow that they’ll achieve that same deliverability rate for another company with a different list. To make sure you choose an ESP or system with the highest deliverability rate for you, try and take your choices for a test drive, using the system to mail to your own list to test deliverability.

Unfortunately there isn't any one checklist that’s going to help you find the features you must have, but finding an ESP with an uptime of 99.5% or higher and high deliverability among its IP addresses is key to finding an ESP that is going to serve your best long-term.


- Marco Marini
CEO
ClickMail Marketing
 

The eec applauds the Associated Press for its recent decision to remove the hyphen from "e-mail," making "email" its accepted term.  As reported by The Huffington Post, the AP announced the change at the annual conference of the American Copy Editors Society.  "The use of 'e-mail' was seen as a relic of an earlier age, when the Internet was new to most people and the idea of 'electrionic mail' was confusing," Huffington Post said.  "In the last decade, email marketing has grown from a marketing and consumer novelty to a critical lifestyle management and communication vehicle," said Jeanniey Mullen, founder of the Email Experience Council.

"Much of the acceptance, success, and continued innovation in email is due to the passionate community within the email marketing industry.  Four years ago, the eec set out to show how impactful the voices of the email industry could be when we made a move to get the hyphen removed from email.  And, today, we are proud to recognize that change.  This change doesn't symbolize a new spelling, it symbolizes the power of the people of email."

Read more about and sign the eec's Hyphen = Disrespect Petition.

This year's Email Evolution Conference was a huge success and we had over 400 email and digital marketers join us in Miami Beach! 

If you attended, here's your chance to access the great presentations you saw.  If you didn't attend, these presentations should help convince you to come next year.

Download presentations now.

Presenting companies included:

• Citizens Bank
• uncommongoods.com
• Scotts Miracle-Gro
• PGA TOUR
• Kiehl's
• Kraft
• InterContinental Hotels Group
• ATP Tour
• SnagAJob.com
• BlueHornet
• Yesmail
• StrongMail
• Datran Media
• Responsys
• The Relevancy Group
• Message Systems
• ExactTarget
• Alchemy Worx

and many more!

This Friday, December 10th, is the last day to submit your nomination for the eec's Stefan Pollard Marketer of the Year Award for Excellence in Creativity and Contribution.

This award will recognize an individual who exemplifies and demonstrates Stefan Pollard's most memorable and loved characteristics and who provides inspiration to others.  It will be presented on February 1, 2011 at the Email Evolution Conference, an event Stefan loved.  We are accepting nominations until Friday, December 10 so please review the guidelines and nominate a deserving email marketer.

Special thanks to the folks at FillAnyPDF.com for their support of the nomination submission process.


- Ali Swerdlow
eec
aswerdlow@the-dma.org

This is the last week for you to confirm your booth space at the Email Evolution Conference 2011 - the email marketing event to attend in 2011.

We offer a turnkey pedestal system where everything is provided for you...all you bring is your laptop and marketing collateral and we take care of the rest!

The turnkey package includes:

• 2 conference passes
• Pedestal rental
• Set-up and dismantle
• Company logo and 5 bullet points printed on booth
• 19˝ flat-screen monitor
• 1 wireless connection
• 500 watts of power

eec and DMA members receive a $700 discount.  Contact Ali for more details: aswerdlow@the-dma.org.


Here are some photos of the booths at EEC10:

   

It's Thanksgiving this week in here the U.S. and we wanted to take this opportunity to ask you to share your story.  What about email and digital marketing are you most thankful for this year?

We're thankful for you - our subscribers, members and sponsors.  Without you, the eec would not be the largest organization of email marketers in the world.

Thank you for your continued support of the eec and our efforts!


A few reminders:

• Nominate a deserving individual for the eec's Stefan Pollard Marketer of the Year Award.  Read the criteria and submit your nomination.
• Join us in Miami and register for the Email Evolution Conference 2011.
• Read up on holiday season email marketing tips.

Register by tomorrow to receive early bird pricing for the Email Evolution Conference - the best email marketing event you'll attend in 2011!  You can save up to $350 so hurry!

Join us for:

• 3 pre-conference workshops: email compliance, email strategy, and the future of digital marketing integration
• Gary Vaynerchuk's keynote
• 3 tracks with 18 expert-packed sessions
• multiple networking opportunities (including speed networking!)
• the presentation of a new eec award
• and much more!

Have a question? Interested in exhibit or sponsorship opportunities? Email Ali at the eec.

See you in Miami!

Earlier this year, longtime eec member, senior strategic consultant at Responsys and email industry stalwart, Stefan Pollard, passed away.  The eec is establishing the Stefan Pollard Marketer of the Year Award for Excellence in Creativity and Contribution to be awarded annually.

This award will recognize an individual who exemplifies and demonstrates Stefan's most memorable and loved characteristics and who provides inspiration to others.  It will be presented on February 1, 2011 at the Email Evolution Conference, an event Stefan loved.  We are accepting nominations until Friday, December 10 so please review the guidelines and nominate a deserving email marketer.

Special thanks to the folks at FillAnyPDF.com for their support of the nomination submission process.


- Ali Swerdlow
eec

This week at our European Email Marketing Conference in London, we caught up with Eloqua's Chief Privacy Officer, Dennis Dayman.

Read on for his predictions for 2011 as well as some information on Canada's new anti-spam law, C-28.


1) What are some of your top takeaways from this week's conference?

This year's European Email Marketing Conference (EEMC) was a great success! Marketing and email professionals from all over the world came together to discuss issues and challenges they face.

For myself and others, one of the known mountains we have to climb in the European Union (EU) is required permission for marketing. Marketing itself is the same throughout the globe, but in the EU, collection, processing and transferring of marketing information can be much more "difficult" at times due the privacy requirements that surround it. This means to many here that new things like social media sharing have to have a new and different way of thinking when the uses are for marketing purposes. 

Many companies like Eloqua are global in nature and when launching marketing programs across their brands and customers, they have much more to think about than just hitting the "send" button; for example, explicit opt-in.

This week's conference really helped expose these known - and sometimes complicated - matters for global companies and how to solve them.  Lots of stories and examples were shared freely at the event, allowing others to get an idea of how to properly run a campaign no matter where you do business.

Thanks to all the participants for being so helpful to each other and participating at such a personal level. I am certainly looking forward to the Email Evolution Conference in Miami!


2) What are your predictions for compliance and privacy changes in 2011?

There are some major changes coming to the world of marketing in 2011.  Today, most of the world has some sort of privacy data protection in place, but many of the laws are being updated to keep up with changes in the industry and ways in which data is used. 

Here are some items to keep on your radar:

• In the EU, starting in May 2011, dropping and accessing a tracking mechanism like a cookie will become illegal without explicit permission to do such.
• US legislators might attempt another go at federal privacy legislation in 2011 which would require an opt-in to collect and process data.
• By the end of this year, Canada is looking at putting into place an anti-spam law that will make the sending of "spam" illegal and prosecutable.

Over the next few years marketers can expect to see more privacy requirements imposed on marketing processes.  Much of this is due to the sheer volume of information being kept on individuals and this isn't something that shouldn't be feared as most of today's marketing best practices already ask you to obtain permission to collect and use data on individuals.

As these issues come up, be assured that we in the industry along with the eec/DMA will look out for your best interest.


3) Can you please provide an update on the recent anti-spam legislation in Canada?

As a quick recap, anyone sending commercial email from Canada or to someone in Canada will be subject to C-28 (formerly known as Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act - FISA). FISA requires marketers to get permission, either implied or expressed, before sending commercial email to Canadians.

While at EEMC this week, there was some good news that came from Canada.  Canadian anti-spam bill C-28 passed through House of Commons Industry, Science and Technology committee in 48 minutes (WOW!).  One objection was made to the short title (FISA) and it was removed from the bill. The bill now goes back to the house for a 3rd and final reading and a vote which means Canada might have anti-spam legislation by end of the year.

For more information about what is coming in the law, visit:
http://www.theemailguide.com/email-marketing/canadas-new-law-restricts-“spam-haven" and
http://www.thindata.com/aboutus/resourcecenter/fisa/pdf/The_Marketers_Guide_to_Applying_FISA.pdf


- Dennis Dayman
Chief Privacy Officer
Eloqua

We're excited to announce the annual Email Evolution Conference 2011 (EEC11) will be held January 31-February 2, 2011 at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. EEC11 will bring together practitioners and decision-makers to find practical approaches to email and digital marketing challenges faced by every marketer.

Be a Part of the Event!
We're accepting speaking proposals from individuals and companies that wish to be a part of the program. Submit your most fascinating case studies or the latest "how-to" information that every savvy email marketer should have in their toolbox. Selected speakers will receive a complimentary conference pass.

We're looking for abstracts in the following areas of email marketing:

• acquisition & retention strategies
• analytics/landing pages
• analyzing ROI
• charity/non-profit
• compliance & privacy
• creative strategies
• data integration
• deliverability & rendering
• dynamic content
• list growth/hygiene/management
• metrics & measurement
• mobile marketing
• preference centers
• relevance
• reputation
• segmentation & targeting
• social networking
• testing
• and more!

All proposals must be submitted by Friday, August 27, 2010.

If you are interested in exhibit and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Ali.

We look forward to receiving your proposal!

Email marketing, like any career, is likely to include working and collaborating with people who are not in the same physical office.   If you are the remote person, you probably have concerns about keeping in touch with others on the marketing team or in your department, and if you are managing people who are remote, you have to pay special attention to keeping them in touch with the rest of the group.

In an eec Member Initiatives Advisory Committee meeting on the Career Paths project last month, we discussed the impact of this dispersed workforce, and how it affects an email marketing team.

Angela Baldonero, VP, People of Return Path, reviewed four broad trends for career development among the diaspora:

1. Technology keeps us connected, and enables a broad dispersion of the workforce.  However, it also causes some practical issues. For example, we have an employee in Berlin reporting to a manager in California. It raises the question:  Is Skype enough?
2. Social interaction is good for the business.  Bringing on people in new geographies can be challenging for on-boarding as well as collaboration.  It's harder for new people to be remote.  However, people who have already built relationships in a core office and then move away can be successful in a remote environment.
3. Dispersion affects the talent development lifecycle.  For example, the key needs of top talent are relationships and recognition and it's hard for people to build relationships if they are not there.  Lots of good work happens when you are in the same room – including discussing the creative for the email campaign while you look over my shoulder, or brainstorming subject lines by the coffee machine.   Plus, it's hard to "make your mark" if you do not have access to casual interaction, and the only time you "see" colleagues is in formal business meeting situations.
4. It is easy to confuse connections with relationships.  It's easy to have connections. It's harder to build relationships.  However, it's relationships that drive recruitment as well as career advancement. Geography supports or inhibits relationship depth and meaning.

 

As the group discussed these ideas, we realized that these are challenges for workforce, but also for proving the value of email marketing within the organization.  We can't earn the respect we need for resources and a seat at the table just from the numbers; the relationships matter, too.

Other impact areas:

• Geographic dispersion and even business unit silos within the same geography also affect the collaboration and governance of different brand/business unit email programs.
• Participation in eec meetings is a way for geographically or functionally isolated professionals to network and be educated. It's also always helpful to hear that other marketers have the same challenges!
• Remote employees don't have access to impromptu conversations which can help your career and move your projects forward.  Baldonero quoted, "A lot of work gets done when you talk about nothing."  Relationships are not built just talking about business and trust is built when you know the whole person.  If you just talk business, you may actually have less trust, because you only know one aspect of that person.
• Sometimes there is a perception that if you are working at home you are not working as hard.  Jennifer Carmichael of Tenet Healthcare noted, "Some remote employees work harder or longer hours because they're 'always on.'"
• Relationships drive loyalty and the extra effort needed to get something done.  If I need help with a project or getting something run up the flagpole, it's a lot more successful to stand in that person's office, than to IM them.

 

In all this, we discussed that building relationships is a shared responsibility.  If you work remotely, you need to make time for making these connections since they don't happen organically. This is both the responsibility of the individual and the organization.  If a business hires people remotely for email marketing or any task, there needs to be a commitment to support this relationship building.

Some ways to build your own long distance relationships or help make it easier for remote employees to engage:

1. Stay an extra day when you do visit the office. Make time for coffee and hello's.
2. Corporate social networks can help facilitate information across offices.
3. Seek out similarities – find the connections outside the office with your colleagues. This might mean taking a bit of extra time on the phone or in an email to get to know the person.
4. Managers can facilitate team building prior to the business meetings. Build time into the weekly phone calls or hold quarterly in-person meetings that have time for socializing.   "This is a great idea that I can implement tomorrow," Carmichael said.
5. Conferences like the Email Evolution Conference are a good way to meet new people.   However, we are all busy; we have to make time for establishing these connections.  Nancy Atwood of Anchor Computer said, "In some ways, we are victims of technology – we can work all the time and we are always connected. So the "doing the work" is taking priority over "building a network."  We invest our time in replying electronically rather than establishing a personal connection."
6. Corporate HR or someone needs to accept some level of administrative support and education, as well as the remote employees themselves.  Be proactive. If no one is reaching out to you, reach out to your manager or the HR team, Baldonero recommends.
7. Working long distance is a reality for most email vendor/marketer relationships. Many of these same principles apply to good account management and client service. "Think of your colleagues as clients, and that might change the way you relate to them," Atwood said.

 

Lastly, we discussed some things that the DMA/eec can be doing to help facilitate career growth and help us all build these relationships internally and around the industry:

1. A member directory of names, company, industry, geography. Restricted access and "no sales calls."
2. Local events for members to meet and network and learn from each other. Perhaps in cooperation with local DMA groups.
3. Ensure there are strong networking opportunities prior to and during the main DMA conferences.

What are you doing to build relationships with remote colleagues, clients and employees?  What else would you like the DMA/eec to do to help the industry? Please leave your comments below or email Stephanie Miller at the Member Initiatives Advisory Committee.

 

 

I wanted to take a minute to thank you for all of your support of the eec so far. Thanks to fantastic people like you, the eec continues to grow in both size and stature within the email industry.

Over the past three years, the eec has been able to create a community that offers those from all areas of the email marketing industry the opportunity to come, learn and act collectively in positive ways that help change increase the respect and value that email receives from the marketing and advertising worldl.

Collectively, we have helped increase the ROI of email marketing, lobbied for better laws, stronger relationships with ISP's and better integration into other channels like social marketing, mobile markeitng and even search, display and TV. A few of us even wrote books about it!

With all that we have accomplished, we can't sit back and be satisfied. We need to strive for more! More effective email campaign results, more impactful creative, more leverage with ISP's, more innovation with the technologies we use, and more networking to strengthen our collective spirit.

It is with this call for MORE that I am pleased to extend a personal invitation for you to join me at EEC09 in Scottsdale, Arizona, February 9-11th. Use discount code JAN09 to register for just $999* (register at www.emailevolution.org).

Join me, Jeanniey Mullen, as well as our well respected powerful keynote speaker and father of Direct Marketing: Stan Rapp, along with David Daniels, Bill Nussey, Kath Pay, Peter Horan, David Baker, Stephanie Miller, Dela Quist, Ali Swerdlow, Loren McDonald, Stefan Pollard, Jeanne Jennings, Dave Hendricks, Bill McCloskey, Skip Fidura, Dylan Boyd, Aaron Kahlow, Chris Baggott and many other email superstars at this year's event.

In challenging times like these, attending conferences that offer insights and actionable learnings is critical. And, sometimes the networking that happens at the event proves to be even more beneficial. You have my word that you will not be disappointed at this event.

I really hope to see you there. And, if you can make it, drop me an email when you register: jeanniey@emailexperience.org. I would love to say hi at the event and spend some time with you.

Sincerely,

Jeanniey Mullen
eec Founder and Executive Chair

*Only applies to new registrations

We had the pleasure of having two brilliant Brits join us as keynote speakers at our Connections '08 conference in Indianapolis last week. These included Nigel Travis, CEO of Papa John's and former president at Blockbuster, Inc., as well as Joseph Jaffe, author of Join the Conversation and frequent blogger at www.jaffejuice.com. Both energized the crowd of 1,100 and presented an inspirational vision for engaging customers in an ongoing dialog. This made me wonder: As more of the power shifts to the consumer, how many businesses could increase their bottom line by just by doing a better job of listening?

Papa John's has done a number of things to listen to their customers. For example, they saw more of their clients move toward web and SMS, so they acted quickly to offer both of those channels to their customers for ordering. Papa Johns has surpassed over $1 billion in web orders and more and more customers are ordering via SMS. That is a lesson in going to where your customers are, joining the dialog, and responding.

The opportunity for differentiation in pizza is bigger than you might think. Even though there are over 65,000 restaurants in the U.S., consumers average just 4 visits per year to a pizza restaurant. Loyalty is challenged by the sheer number of choices. Yet Papa John's recognizes that to differentiate themselves they have to engage their customers and join the conversation. What if they do a better job listening to their customers than Pizza Hut, Domino's or local chain down the street? Can they not only claim all 4 visits to their restaurant, but also make it such a frictionless order process, solid product and customer experience that they increase the visits to 6, or even 8 per year?

We launched Subscribers Rule! as the theme of our conference for this very reason. Consumers are empowered today more than ever. This power manifests itself in two key ways.

First, consumers are empowered by choice—what to buy, what to wear, how to communicate. Plus, competition has made these choices all "good enough" for most consumers, so it has become increasingly difficult for companies to differentiate themselves.

Second, consumers are empowered by technology—social networks, Twitter, blogs, Google groups, viral email, etc. and they can say what they want about you at any time they wish to do so. Monitoring the web through Google Alerts, for example, to see what humanity is saying about your company is now critical.

The combination of endless consumer choice and nearly boundless ability to spread a message has changed the game for marketers. The conversations are happening and it is up to marketers to join in or be overlooked for the brands that are engaging their customers on their turf.

As I reflect upon these trends as it applies to where many are morphing their email programs, it actually maps pretty well. The call toward triggered messaging relevant to a consumer's activity, or the need to deliver dynamic promotions based on product category searches speaks to the relevance that consumers not only want, but are in a position to demand.

As Joe Jaffe says in Join the Conversation: "Conversation…is a two-way dialog or a stream of messaging between two or more parties with like-minded or shared beliefs, wants, needs, passions, or interests. Conversation is not initiated by any one person, side, or organization. It is organic, nonlinear, unpredictable, and natural."

At our conference we had over 50 customers share stories on how they are using email to deepen the relationship with their customers, improve the dialog, optimize relevancy, and increase stickiness. Some customers are doing really incredible things with CRM integrations, or analytic system integrations to drive that relevancy, and scaling it. It is really fun to see technology and marketing action match up to what was once just theory. As these technologies and trends continue to evolve, the next year is going to be fun to watch and take part in!

— Chip House of ExactTarget

Email is perhaps the most transformative technology yet devised. It has changed the way we communicate, work and shop. Yet, despite its ubiquitous nature, widespread confusion remains about email in the minds of consumers. Issues of permission, privacy, technology and volume are pervasive with regard to email in a way that simply doesn't exist elsewhere in marketing. When was the last time you complained to DirecTV about getting channels for which you didn't opt-in?

The eec has taken on the sizable challenge of educating consumer users about all things email, and we need your help.

On Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 2pm EDT, DJ Waldow and I will be kicking off the newly formed Consumer Education Roundtable. The mission of this roundtable is to help consumers separate myth from fact and become better, safer and more responsible users of email. In doing so, we aim to provide an important feedback mechanism for the email industry, to assist them in understanding consumers' challenges and opinions regarding email. (Because let's face it, it's awfully easy for email professionals to lose sight of how tricky email can be for inexperienced users).

The first project (and it's a doozy) for this new roundtable is to build the definitive website where consumers can learn key truths about email topics such as opting in and out, phishing, inbox management and other elements critical to a successful and positive email experience.

We have secured volunteers to build the actual site, but we very much need eec members to assist in content creation. Again, our first roundtable conference call will be on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 2pm EDT, and will be devoted to determining overall features and functions for the new site, and discussing specific assignments and timelines. This strategy brief outlines our current plan for the new site.

If you have a passion for making sure consumers understand our industry, please consider joining the new Consumer Education Roundtable. We'd love to have you. To join, simply contact Ali Swerdlow at ali@emailexperience.org.

—eec Consumer Education Roundtable chair Jason Baer of Convince & Convert

This summer, instead of tracking climate changes in degrees Fahrenheit, Americans are tracking them in dollars. Consumers are facing sinking home values, jumping food costs, and gas prices over $4 per gallon in much of the country; while businesses are seeing stock prices tumble, profits decline, and budgets shrink. Concerns about the economic climate come as no surprise.

Good market segmentation enables firms to target their limited resources on the most promising opportunities by putting customers into manageable groups based on behavior. But as the economic situation continues to change, I wonder: Are customer segments changing, too? Do consumers spend more time comparing prices online? Are mass affluent households putting less in savings and more on credit cards? Is the high-net-worth population still traveling in first class?

I'm speaking about the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective Segmenters" at the IIR SCOPE 2008 Segmentation 2.0 Conference in La Jolla, Calif., in a couple of weeks, and am interested to learn how (if at all) companies, financial or otherwise, are adjusting their customer segmentation strategies during these tough times. If you have any insights to share, please comment below. I hope to see you in sunny La Jolla!

—Sarah Tuttle of Bank of America

As a special offer to the eec community, SCOPE is offering 20% off the standard registration fee. Take advantage of that special rate now. If you register by phone by calling (888) 670-8200 or via email at register@iirusa.com, be sure to mention discount code XM2045EECB.

SCOPE 2008 is being held at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif., on Aug. 18-20.

Type the phrase "centralizing email marketing" into a search engine and you'll be served up an impressive number of results (at this writing, about 247,000). And it's no wonder—email marketing continues to rank among the most popular tactics that marketers use to reach their audiences.

The arguments for centralizing are compelling: Managing emails through a single platform enables companies to not only more effectively manage their brand and good sender reputation, but it's also much easier to manage the frequency of communication—no one wants to frustrate their audience to the point of unsubscribing. Sounds like a no-brainer, right?

Not so fast. According to JupiterResearch, only 38% of companies have a single department handling email communication—while 24% have six or more. With all the benefits of centralizing email marketing, why aren't more companies taking this approach?

For some companies, it may come down to resources and priorities. For example, within very large organizations, email is used to communicate with many different audiences—employees, partners, end user customers, and prospects—among others. Each of these audiences has different expectations for how they should be communicated with and likely, a different group managing that communication stream.

Because email marketing was often developed as a grassroots effort within each group, it's not unusual for larger organizations to be actively using several different email platforms to manage their campaigns. In these instances, transitioning to a completely centralized approach requires almost Herculean effort.

However, in the absence of a completely centralized approach, there are still things you can do to streamline email communications and ensure a positive experience for your audience. Here are three specific tips that are reasonably quick and easy to implement:

1. Develop and share an email marketing calendar.

Wherever there's a risk of message crossover, establish a marketing calendar to track these campaigns and assign a calendar owner. Although the owner is ultimately responsible for keeping the calendar updated, all groups should participate in the calendar development and notify the owner if campaign dates shift.

My team uses a web-based calendar hosted on our intranet site; however, tools such as Google Calendar or even an Excel spreadsheet are simple, no/low-cost alternatives.

2. Ensure that all stakeholders are on all campaign seed lists.

Whether you're sending a campaign to a house or rented list, be sure and add the appropriate people to your seed lists. You may want to send test seeds to a smaller group for review and feedback, and then to a larger group for live campaign drops. This is additional insurance that everyone is aware of what messages are leaving the building.

3. Share examples of campaigns and results at cross-functional monthly or quarterly reviews.

At least once a quarter, get together and share examples of campaign creative and results. Even if you're mailing to completely different audiences, best practices are sure to emerge that you'll want to apply to your line of business.

If you work for a large organization, the idea of centralizing your email marketing may seem difficult, if not impossible. But by doing a little detective work and implementing some quick fixes that don't require a lot of administrative overhead, you can do a lot to improve the quality of your email communications and set yourself up for more formal centralization in the future.

—Cheryle Ross, the eCommerce Marketing Manager of Xerox Corp.

*Cheryle was invited to be a blogger for a day after sharing her thoughts in our Voices from the Email Evolution Conference post.

Ask me what I do for a living. Go ahead. Ask. I love to tell people about email marketing, and so do most of our eec members. So after a lot of discussion and effort, we're proud to announce the launch of the eec Speakers Bureau. The concept is a simple one, but with tremendous power behind it. While most of us in the eec live and breathe (and dream and sweat) email marketing, that's not necessarily the case with all marketers everywhere. Many companies either don't do email marketing or worse, do it badly.

The new Speakers Bureau will match eec members with speaking opportunities at events that without our support would have little or no programming about email marketing. The goal of the Bureau is to spread fundamental best practices by proactively reaching out to communities where our message of responsible, permission-based email marketing can do the most good.

But we need your help to make this a big success. We want to expand the roster of available speakers to be able to provide assistance to conference organizers large and small. Please join the Speakers Bureau and register to be considered for speaking requests in your community.

Additionally, let us know of any conferences or events that would be an ideal platform to deliver marketers information about email marketing best practices. We'll match up the organization's needs with a speaker. We would also appreciate it if you let us know about articles, whitepapers and other free resources related to the topics covered by the Bureau that can be distributed to support and extend our presentations.

Many thanks to everyone on the Communications Roundtable who worked long and hard to get us to this point. We look forward to making the Speakers Bureau beneficial for eec members and the organizations we reach out to, providing lots of information about email marketing at its basic and its best.

—eec Communications Roundtable co-chair Kay Cavender of Silverpop