Michael Weston's Blog

"Engagement Marketing: Strategies for Conversion and Ongoing Customer Retention" is what it said in the programme.

It sounded safe enough, but as I delivered this presentation at Internet World last month, I wondered if the subject headings on Lines, Crunch, Breaking Habits and a 7 Step Programme (combined with some slightly edgy last minute PowerPoint images) were starting to make it sound more like a discourse on drug rehabilitation than on email marketing!

I'm in Atlanta, Georgia at Silverpop's Customer Conference. One of the hot topics here has been yesterday's announcement by the FTC that it is changing the rules in the US around unsubscribing.

Essentially you need to ensure that your reader can kiss you off with a single click, and without having to enter more than an email address.

Right person, right place, right time.... right environment: some thoughts on the challenges and opportunities of multichannel customer communications.

For me, spam is unwelcome email - if I don't want it, it's spam.

Back in the day we used to talk about 'above-the-line' and 'below-the-line' as a proxy for advertising versus direct marketing (and never the twain shall meet).

Digital has changed all that - we need to redraw the line.

Software as a Service (SaaS) tools help email marketers look smart by keeping it simple - so long as the techies who designed them understand how their customers  do things.

Beware of 'averages' - sometimes they hide more truth than they reveal.

Michael Weston takes a look at why the child benefit data scandal matters to digital marketers.

How did a reputable family of brands (whose products I enjoy a little too much) annoy me into hitting the SPAM button?