Top email marketing info sources for 2009

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Time for a 2009 update to my annual guide to the top people and places to go to for email marketing information.

There are now hundreds of great sites, blogs, newsletters and writers in the email marketing world. So these are just my personal "favorites"...confined to info available in English and admittedly US-centric.

Please do list your own favorites in the comments.

So, in no particular order...

Media sites


ClickZ was one of the first marketing media websites to publish an email marketing column. They now have five, featuring many long-time industry stalwarts.

All are good value, but my particular favorites are the optimization (Derek Harding, Ed Heinrich) and delivery (Stefan Pollard) columns.

MediaPost's Email Insider hosts various excellent columns, written by experts with strong backgrounds in the subject area.

If I was forced to name favorites, I'd go for Loren McDonald's column, which probably comes closest to the way I think about and use marketing email, and the design inspiration provided by Lisa Harmon and colleagues.

Check the iMedia Connection site for regular articles from another slew of email experts like Wendy Roth, Spencer Kollas and others.

MarketingProfs offers many great resources, but the email newsletter "Get to the Point: email marketing" is perhaps best. You get summaries of email marketing articles at the main site, plus highlights of useful posts from other sources.

For a more UK-oriented view, check out Econsultancy's email marketing articles.

And, finally, I know marketers who read Ken Magill's columns just to make sure they're not in them. He is just about the only one out there willing to burst the cozy mutual backslapping bubble that all industries wrap around themselves.

Stats and reference works


MarketingSherpa's Email Marketing Benchmark Guide has achieved iconic status in the industry. The main Sherpa site is also a good source of case studies and other reports.

The EmailStatCenter.com website is the place to start looking for public stats. It's the brainchild of Simms Jenkins, who passes on his broader email marketing experience through an iMedia Connection column and The Truth About Email Marketing book.

Other recent books on email marketing include Successful email marketing strategies and Email marketing: an hour a day.

ExactTarget's Morgan Stewart is one of the few experts out there with an understanding of email, wider marketing channels and statistical analysis. I value his blog posts very highly.

Twitter accounts


I have dozens of email marketing Twitter accounts listed here. And many of the highlighted names in this post are, of course, worth following at Twitter, too.

A special shout out, though, to Fred Tabsharani, Captain Inbox and John Caldwell who do a great job of passing on useful links to their followers.

Blogs and newsletters


You can get an OPML file of all the 140+ blogs I subscribe to here, but some highlights:
  • Chad White operates the Retail Email blog which is a super public source of insight into what the big retailers are doing with their emails. Also see his column at MediaPost.
  • The MailChimp blog often comes up with great insights and stats, such as numbers on the effectiveness of different subject lines and advice on what kinds of address lists can be used for email marketing.
  • eROI has several blogs which are always great and regular sources of practical tidbits, event reports and musings from the front line of email marketing. My faves: Return on Subscriber by Alex Williams and The Email Wars by Dylan Boyd.
  • The Bronto bloggers have impressed of late with their concerted effort to bring useful hype-free info to the community.
  • The Blue Sky Factory blog stands out because the people there are also very clued in to social media and the implications for email. And because it features the irreverent DJ Waldow.
  • Finally, try the Alchemy Worx newsletter. It takes common topics and offers a new perspective or advice that challenges what we all thought was true. CEO Dela Quist is also the only reader who doesn't leave comments on my blog, but actually rings me up to debate a point.

Small business


Most of the resources mentioned in this post are for people dealing regularly with email marketing. Here I'd like to point out some resources that address small business and those dealing intermittently with email marketing...
  • If you write an email newsletter and haven't read the articles by Michael Katz, you should.
  • Janine Popick's blog posts at Vertical Response take a small business focus and go beyond the mechanics of email marketing to cover other business aspects relevant to the "small" emailer.
  • The folk at AWeber are very good at highlighting key stuff for small business and those with smaller lists and autoresponders. Look out particularly for Justin Premick's posts.
  • The StreamSend blog is a constant source of quick tips for email marketers.
  • Constant Contact has a huge small business user base: see their Learning Center for blog posts, articles, webinars etc.
  • Campaigner's blog is a regular series of quick tips on email marketing and small business (in particular).
  • Tom O'Leary writes the Messaging Times blog for Infacta.

Asking a question


The Email Roundtable is a marketer-dominated discussion group with some of the brightest folk in email marketing on board. The discussions deal with the day-to-day strategic and tactical issues faced by email marketers and are characterized by their pragmatism, experienced insight and friendliness.

The Email Marketer's Club is probably the biggest networking site out there for email marketers and includes a forum and many other useful resources. It was founded by Tamara Gielen, who also runs the BeRelevant blog which regularly aggregates links to the more useful email marketing content out there.

Bonus: Deliverability


Return Path are never shy about commenting on issues that coincide with their interests. But they offer a different vendor perspective on their blog as they're not a traditional email service provider. In particular, Stephanie Miller gets through my trust barrier and you'll find her articles at places like ClickZ and MarketingProfs.

As well as the occasional appearance on his employer's blog, Al Iverson pops up in various places to display his in-depth knowledge of spam, deliverability and blacklisting issues.

Laura Atkins is an independent consultant who isn't carrying around any particular vendor bias when it comes to delivery issues. Get her advice and links from her blog.

Led by Dennis Dayman, the Deliverability.com blog pulls in contributions from a veritable who's who of the email (delivery) world. A special mention for two of those names...
  • Matt Vernhout also runs the Email Karma blog with deliverability news.
  • I don't always agree with Andrew Kordek but he's an important voice because he provides the crucial perspective of the frontline marketer with real-world pressures. A pragmatic counterweight to "best practice" advice from those who don't send email themselves (many vendors) or who operate in a non-retail environment (like me).
Traditionally, Pivotal Veracity have kept themselves to themselves, but you'll find Deirdre Baird and colleagues quoted in media articles: they have a very profound understanding of deliverability issues, so pay attention to them.

Bonus: Design


There are so many great HTML email design resources (e.g. Email Standards Project, Style Campaign, Smith-Harmon blog) that there is another post dedicated to that topic alone.

OK, over to you to list your favorites.

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[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
Permalink | September 16, 2009 | 20 comment(s) - add yours!
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20 Comments:

Thanks Mark for your continued diligence in making sure your readers have the best collection of sources in the email marketing world in addition to your plethora of valuable insight.
By Blogger G Simms, on 16 September, 2009  
 

Thanks Mark!

Hoping you would include eM+C's All About eMail e-letter and/or our LinkedIn group. Our All About Email e-letter offers email marketing best prctices and tips and tricks, as well as thought-leadership pieces from the best and the brightest. Our eM+C LinkedIn group is nearing 500 members and there are some great, thought-provoking email articles posted there daily. What's more, we will be hosting an All About eMail Virtual Tradeshow on Nov. 12. Everyone is invited to attend!
By Anonymous melissa campanelli, on 16 September, 2009  
 

Hello Mark,

Thank you for this very valuable list. I'm just kind of disapointed my blog is not listed in the xml.
Here's the address if you want to review it:
http://www.email-ethics.com

On the rest of the list I can just only agree.
By Blogger Anton, on 17 September, 2009  
 

Anton: oversight corrected. You should be on the xml list now.
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 17 September, 2009  
 

Melissa: I'm not familiar enough yet having only just signed up but will be paying attention. Here the links for everyone:

eM+C's All About eMail

eM+C LinkedIn group
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 17 September, 2009  
 

Simms, you're too kind!
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 17 September, 2009  
 

Thank you very much Mark
By Blogger Anton, on 17 September, 2009  
 

Mark,

Thank you very much for the Bronto shout-out. We feel honored!

Your blog is one of our personal favorites as well! We appreciate the great insights you offer on a ongoing basis. Keep it up!
By Blogger Kristen Gregory at Bronto, on 17 September, 2009  
 

Mark,

I am honored to have been put on this list and wanted to thank you. I realize that my posts/comments might ruffle a few feathers and I am glad that folks disagree with me. That is what makes the email marketing community that we are a part of so fun.

It's great to see folks so passionate about email.

Andrew
By OpenID thescrappyemailmarketer, on 17 September, 2009  
 

Thanks Kristen.

Andrew: we need more Kordeks. Harmony is good, but disharmony often brings more progress. If we all agreed, something would be very wrong!
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 18 September, 2009  
 

Mark, thanks for the kind words about MarketingProfs! Your blog is one of the very best -- a favorite both for its outstanding content and its outstanding author.
By Anonymous Christian Gulliksen, on 18 September, 2009  
 

Hi and great article. I also wanted to add that there are a lot of great email stories and stats about email on MarketingCharts.com. Readers might want to check that site too.
By Anonymous Victoria, on 18 September, 2009  
 

Mark
thanks ,many times i start reading a list like this and say to myself theri is nothing new or surprising here,but as i went thru your list found several that are o interest to me
Tom Martucci
By Anonymous Tom Martucci, on 18 September, 2009  
 

Thanks Christian.

Good call Victoria: MarketingCharts.com

Tom: Glad you could find something new and useful in there.
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 21 September, 2009  
 

Mark:

Late to the "thanks" game - what's new? Ha ha. Seriously, though Mark...I/we really appreciate the shout out.

You don't give yourself enough credit though. Not only do you continue to churn out good content, your unbiased approach is very refreshing. You are one blog that I read regularly. Also, you have killer Austrian chocolate.

Back to your comments, I'm hoping that you are opting for the "Satiric" definition of irreverent. Ha ha.

Keep rocking. We need to get you stateside soon. Can't believe we've never met face to face. Let's change that soon.


DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow
By Blogger DJ Waldow, on 22 September, 2009  
 

DJ, you are too kind. I wasn't too sure what irreverent meant. But it seemed to fit. Like I always say to my wife, if there are two ways of interpreting what I just said, I meant the good way.
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 22 September, 2009  
 

A nice list there Mark. A big resource over here in the UK is Econsultancy (http://econsultancy.com/blog/topics/email-marketing).
By Anonymous Thomas, on 23 September, 2009  
 

Thanks for the reminder Thomas: I added them to the main list as a I've been a fan for years.
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 23 September, 2009  
 

Thanks a lot Mark for your contribution
By Anonymous Email autoresponder reviewer, on 29 September, 2009  
 

Good info for my email marketing.

I found Spread – email marketing software and service provides the tips.

It's a web-based Email marketing platform, that opens, clicks, etc can be tracked on it.
By Blogger Peter, on 27 November, 2009  
 

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