Research Library
Articles
Books
Press Releases
Responsys, a global provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions, today announced the release of the Retail Email Unsubscribe Benchmark Study. The complimentary 24-page report discusses best practices and trends in email opt-out practices while examining how 100 top online retailers handle unsubscribers.
Read more
Getting your emails to render correctly in all the major email platforms can be challenging. One rendering challenge arises from how Hotmail displays emails when viewed in Firefox. An examination of emails from 102 major online retailers revealed that 55% of them had not properly coded their emails to circumvent this problem.
Read more
2009 saw record email volumes from retailers. Last year, the top online retailers that I tracked each sent an average of 132 promotional emails to each of their subscribers, a 12% increase over 2008--and 39% increase over 2007.
Read more
SEATTLE, Dec. 1, 2009 - With retailers relying more heavily on email marketing this holiday season, both Black Friday (Nov. 27) and Cyber Monday (Nov. 30) hit all-time highs in terms of email volume, according to new research from Chad White, our research director. "Cyber Sunday" (Nov. 29), the day before Cyber Monday, also saw record email volume.
Read more
Responsys, a global provider of email and cross-channel marketing solutions, today announced the publication of "The Retail Email Guide to Multichannel Engagement: How Email Marketing Drives Interest in Other Sales and Marketing Channels". The complimentary 28-page guide discusses the growing need for cross-channel marketing coordination and explores how leading online retailers are promoting and leveraging other channels, such as mobile and social, in their email marketing messages.
Read more
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - RESPONSYS LEADERS FORUM - October 29, 2009 -- Responsys, a global provider of email and cross-channel marketing solutions, today announced the company has entered an agreement to acquire Smith-Harmon Inc., an award-winning digital marketing services firm with a world-class client list. The acquisition of Smith-Harmon by Responsys strengthens the company's ability to help marketing organizations with the strategic planning, creative design, and execution of integrated, cross-channel marketing programs.
Read more
SEATTLE, October 8, 2009 -- Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced that on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 4:15pm EDT its research director, Chad White, will join a panel of retail experts at one-to-one marketing solutions provider ExactTarget's annual user conference, Connections '09: Success By Design, the world's largest gathering of one-to-one marketers.
Read more
SEATTLE, Sept. 21, 2009 -- Preheader text is HTML text that appears before or sometimes within the header of an email. It's important and growing in popularity because of the prevalence of image blocking by email subscribers and the increasing use of image-unfriendly mobile devices to view email. Those two trends make preheader text vital as both a promotional and functional tactic.<
Read more
SEATTLE, August 11, 2009 -- Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced the release of the Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season. Full of benchmarks and advice, the guide will help retailers and other B2C companies can better formulate their holiday campaigns this year.
Read more
SEATTLE, August 6, 2009 -- The growing popularity of share-with-your-network (SWYN) functionality has given rise to questions about the future of forward-to-a-friend (FTAF). While the more viral, farther-reaching SWYN seems to outshine FTAF in its benefits, FTAF still shows a four-to-one adoption rate over SWYN among the top online retailers. What does this all mean?
Read more
SEATTLE, July 14, 2009 -- Under pressure from the weak economy, companies are being tempted to trade the long-term health of their email program for a quick boost in short-term sales by ditching industry best practices. In addition to over-mailing--which is cited by 73% of consumers as a main reason that they unsubscribe--there are several other risky behaviors with serious consequences that may seem alluring in these hard times.
Read more
SEATTLE, July 7, 2009 -- It's certainly easiest to track online sales driven by email marketing, but don't overlook the power of email to get subscribers engaged with other channels where results are more difficult to measure.
Read more
SEATTLE, June 22, 2009 -- The knowledge and expertise needed to succeed at email marketing is significantly different from what's needed to excel at direct mail and online marketing.
Read more
SEATTLE, June 10, 2009 -- Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced the release of its first annual Email Design Look Book. A collection of 20 outstanding B2C emails, the Look Book highlights innovative designs and superior copywriting.
Read more
SEATTLE, May 27, 2009 -- While sending additional email may seem like a promising way to boost your return on investment, when looked at in isolation, the costs of increased sending often far outweigh apparent benefits.
Read more
SEATTLE, May 18, 2009 -- Though not the most labor-intensive or generally eye-catching piece of your email creative, the navigation bar is a huge driver of clickthroughs and requires a unique approach, distinct from that of your site navigation.
Read more
SEATTLE, May 14, 2009 -- Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced the release of the first in its Executive Series on Email Marketing. The series is created as an educational tool for marketing managers to use with executive teams that might not have a full understanding of the email channel.
Read more
SEATTLE, April 30, 2009 — Rough sailing in the economy has unfortunately brought about a number of brand casualties in the retail world, and it's likely that more brands will face challenges in the days to come.
Read more
SEATTLE, April 20, 2009 — Many email marketers are paying more attention to optimizing their creatives for preview panes, ensuring that emails include meaningful content in the first 300 pixels or so of height. However, some marketers are not paying enough attention to the other important inbox dimension: width.
The reportlet is available for download from our Research Library.
Read more
SEATTLE, April 2, 2009 -- Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced the hiring of Thomas Westcott as its Chief Technology Officer. The move comes in the wake of relaunching Smith-Harmon.com, which now includes a Resource Center and Newsroom full of exclusive research and valuable articles.
Read more
SEATTLE, April 1, 2009 — In the fast-paced world of email marketing, it’s tough for even the most established brands to avoid the occasional slip-up. Thanks to resident research expert Chad White, Smith-Harmon now has a new free reportlet to give you all the skills you need to say “sorry.” The reportlet is available for download from our Research Library.
This 13-page reportlet is info-packed and easy to digest, covering seven valuable tips for success and presenting illustrative examples.
Read more
SEATTLE, March 13, 2009 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced that it has designed its website to accommodate its growing library of industry resources.
The Redesign Highlights Growing Archive of Research Reports, Articles, Blog Posts and Book Recommendations
Read more
SEATTLE, March 10, 2009 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced the release of the Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study. Looking at welcome email trends and best practices among the nation’s top online retailers, the study also includes advice and insights from Responsys, which partnered with Smith-Harmon on this study.
Read more
SEATTLE, February 17, 2009 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, and Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), the national outdoor gear and apparel retailer, have been named the winners of the Email Experience Council’s People’s Choice Award: Best in Email for their work together on REI’s new member welcome series.
Read more
The holidays may be over for regular folk, but for us email marketers, not so much. We're still culling through all the data to get a detailed view of the '08 holiday stats and facts. Thanks to our resident research expert, Chad White, we now have a new FREE reportlet to help us sort through the mountain of numbers and focus on the biggest stories.
Read more
SEATTLE, Jan. 14, 2009 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, and Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), the national outdoor gear and apparel retailer, have been named finalists for the Email Experience Council’s People’s Choice Award: Best in Email for their work together on REI’s new member welcome series. This is the second year in a row that REI and Smith-Harmon have been named finalists for the award.
Read more
Cyber Monday was the most popular day of 2008 to send retail emails. Monday and Tuesday were the most popular days of the week to send retail emails last year. And retailers sent an average of 14.6 emails each during December. These are just a few of the stats and trends discussed in Smith-Harmon’s latest reportlet.
Read more
Get the scoop on Cyber Monday volume and messaging trends from our new research director, Chad White.
Read more
SEATTLE, Dec. 1, 2008 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced the appointment of respected email industry expert Chad White as its Research Director. In this newly created role, White will produce research on retail email marketing practices, perform industry outreach and help support Smith-Harmon clients.
Read more
SEATTLE, September 19, 2008 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, and Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), the national outdoor gear and apparel retailer, have won an OMMA Award for their work together on REI’s new member welcome series. They won in the “Email Campaign” category, which honors an outstanding campaign of three or more emails.
Read more
|
