Once in a while, a digital ad grabs you just like that. And one thing that really boosts its impact is if the person featured in it is—you. Read on:  Last year, to sell tickets to its women's basketball games, Gonzaga University released a video of a coach calling the ONE person whose attendance would ... more

If you've noticed an unusual drop in open rates for messages sent to Gmail accounts—and for B2C companies, this could represent a large percentage of subscribers—it's probably not your fault. "There's growing evidence that Gmail is disabling images for senders that users had previously whitelisted and enabled images for. Near-term, ... more

In last week's installment, we offered step-by-step tips to get you tweeting on Twitter. This week, we offer a few more advanced steps to take, based on Jim Sterne's advice in a MarketingProfs article. Incorporate these into your tweeting habits, and you'll be well on the way to becoming a Twitter ... more

"Social media is cool!" proclaims Chris Brogan in a Pro article at MarketingProfs. "Blogging and podcasts are cool! We're so cutting edge! Twitter is like the future here today, and no one knows about it!" If you've noticed a certain facetious quality to his enthusiasm, his next line makes clear ... more

Important Notice: Your Customer Behavior newsletter will continue to bring you the kinds of articles you've come to expect and enjoy—but now, with a new name! Beginning with this edition, we've renamed it Customer Insight, to better reflect its broad intent and scope. See you next week. Seeking to grab ... more

Even a small company can benefit from email messages tailored to a recipient's specific wants and needs. "Using segmentation," says Michael Clark in an article at MarketingProfs, "customers only get notified of new products, specials, and offers based on past buying patterns, knowledge of the customer and what they've clicked ... more

Your e-newsletter is an excellent tool for maintaining customer relationships. But it can also generate income if you offer cool ad space in it.  In a recent article at MarketingProfs, Drew Adams explains how to make it more appealing to select advertisers: Make it relevant. Adams offers an example: "For a newsletter ... more

According to Jorge Aguilar and Andrew Pierce, the Hispanic population in the United States will surpass that of their white non-Hispanic compatriots by 2030. And, argue the pair in an article at MarketingProfs, appealing to this rapidly growing segment is not as simple as hiring a Spanish translator. "[M]arketers ... more

"The news regarding investment in marketing is not good, with many firms cutting their marketing budgets left and right," reports Neil Anuskiewicz in an article at MarketingProfs. Before taking such drastic steps, you might want to consider his better option: "Instead of taking an axe to your marketing budget … ... more

"A great way to capitalize on the democratic medium of email is to put your burning questions, late-night hunches, and out-of-the-box ideas to the test with an A/B split test," says Megan Walsh in a post at the Email Experience Council blog. Here's some of her advice for using split ... more

Back in the days of the Model T, Henry Ford could get away with offering customers any color they wanted—as long as it was black. Ridiculous as that mentality sounds to modern ears, you risk sending customers the same message if you don't tailor your email campaigns to their interests, ... more

Reaching a niche audience—and only those people—can be tricky. But in a post at his eponymous blog, Seth Godin proposes the inventive approach of piggybacking onto a product that your target market already wants. Say you have a rock band with a quirky sound, and people who like your music also ... more

Research has uncovered quite an interesting effect that guides customer brand choices. They call it the "name letter branding effect." The NLB effect shows that customers are more likely to choose a brand name that has the same letters as their first name than they are other, equally attractive, brands. ... more

You've crossed all your marketing t's and dotted all your best practices i's with a relevant, enticing offer sent only to subscribers who opted in to your campaigns. You're anxious to see how well the offer performs, but then you learn a major ISP has blocked your IP address because ... more

If you don't use A/B-split testing to analyze the results of your email campaigns, you probably aren't getting the full picture. According to a whitepaper from L-Soft, "Results can show how your newsletters or email campaigns are performing, why they are performing as they are, and what factors are affecting ... more

It's knowing where prospects are—and how they behave—that's paying off for today's New Media marketers. Their advertising dollars are in hot pursuit of a fragmented audience that now receives thousands of channels of programming over TV, Internet, radio and mobile device. … Enter good ol' Behavioral Targeting. This tried-and-true direct marketing practice ... more