No special offer for holiday season in 2006

According to the latest 2006 Online retail Holiday Readiness Report by WebTrends, more retailers are going to adopt the no special offers plan this year for holiday season. Last year 11 percent of online retailers refrained from introducing special offers. This year the number has doulbed to 23 percent. Email marketing is considered the most important demand-generating activity, followed by search engine marketing and search engine optimization.

A marketer’s take on email authentication

Kevin Newcomb has an article on ClickZ where he outlines a few of his thoughts about email authentication. Two standards, the path-based SenderID and the crypto-based Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), have become de-facto standards.

Markters should implement SenderID because it is low cost, easy to implement and does not create additional load on the server. DKIM will help stop phishing and spoofing but introduce load on the server.

Email authentication has the ability to protect brands, restoring consumer confidence and reclaiming email from spammers. But, before jumping in, a comprehensive audit is required to determine which business units are sending email on the company’s behalf, and to see what level of authentication is already in place.

If you are interested in a copy of e-mail authentication whitepaper by Strongmail, head to their site (free opt-in).

Top to bottom advice for better emails

BrightWave’s founder and principal, G. Simms Jenkins, outlines the crucial elements for strong — and compliant — email headers and footers. He covers everything from unsubscribe, preference center, viral, white list, cross promotion, archives, to web navigation, privacy and others. Go take a good read.

Who was your last unsubscribe?

Andy Goldman writes about how you can identify mailing list attrition and suggests email marketers to consider ways to save quality prospects. The key is to monitor trends to look for in the active lists and respond accordingly. Find why people unsubscribe, solve the problem and get healthier bottom line.