The From Line

The email industry has changed. Learn reasons for these changes and how all marketers need to change the way they strategize campaigns in order to ensure good deliverability and fewer spam complaints.

Gold Lasso's new white paper is available to anyone for free from our website... continue reading this post for more information...

Marketing Trend

Our trendwatchers are seeing a growing need for even the savviest of marketers to educate themselves on workflow improvements. The concept of how to mass-produce automated marketing campaigns (without reliance on excessive human interaction) is not difficult to implement, yet many businesses aren’t aware of the right strategies. Furthermore, while the cost of marketing mediums has decreased due to the rapid growth of online advertising opportunities, production costs have skyrocketed. This leaves marketing budgets vulnerable to what our experts call The 21st Century Marketing Paradox – a cost shift from channel to production. 

Bacon of the Month Club for Valentine's Day? Or Panties of the Month?

Regardless of what you sell, your company may just have a big opportunity gift right under your noses. Continue reading for more on what the publishing industry did right and what we can learn from subscription-based business models...

Trend: The Return of Subscription-Based Business Models

Established by the publishing industry with magazines and Book of the Month Club, many retailers looking to break into an already-competitive market are turning to the subscription model. Rather than selling a single product and hoping for the customer to return for more, ecommerce sites such as Panty by Post, Men are Useless and Blue Bottle Coffee Company are hoping larger single receipts through subscription packages are the answer to bigger returns.

Latest Marketing Trend to Watch:
QR codes were popularized more than five years ago in Japan and are now used globally as physical world hyperlinks. Like updated versions of traditional bar codes, QR codes are images that can be scanned to relay information. A code scanned by a smartphone instantly links a user to mobile content, fostering greater customer engagement. Big brands are adopting this strategy and you can, too.

Early adopters helped create a 'mystique' surrounding QR-led urban games because they could access exclusive content. (See fun examples here and here.) But now mainstream consumers are seeing more QR codes everywhere. U.S. companies were a bit behind in adoption of these codes until now.

Here are just some of the places people see QR codes in their daily lives:

• Catalogs, newspapers and magazines
• Events - tickets, badges, booths
• Outdoor signs - billboards, window clings
• Clothing and accessories - labels, inventory
• SMS  - coupons, contact information
• Mobile apps - coupons, contests