Top Deliverability’s Blog

From 1997-2016, Ken Magill covered the wild and woolly happenings of online marketing (and email marketing) from its nearly nascent beginnings through to the world-changing behemoth it would become. From DM News, to Magilla Marketing, to the Magill Report, Ken worked hard to provide “the real stories behind the PR nonsense,” keeping us updated on online and email marketing industry changes, and calling bullshit as appropriate, as “Marketing’s Weekly Dose of the Truth.”  In October 2023, he published his memoir: There, He’s Crying. There, He’s Crying: A Memoir, by Ken Magill [ Buy now: Amazon | Bookshop ] Ken Magill is quick to let me know that he grew up in a different time. Out with the other kids all day long, shooting crabapples at each other, mom has no idea where you are, you’re out on your own with your friends, fending for yourselves, and everything’s just fine. He compares

Remember when being a “creator” was a laughable teen pastime? Now, consumers are largely trusting influencers over brands, creators are taking over brand marketing teams, and the industry is only growing bigger. In 2023, we’ve seen the so-called Creator Economy grow to 50 million creators globally, with a market size of $250 billion. By 2027, this number is expected to reach $480 billion. Perhaps most telling, there are now kids’ summer camps dedicated to content creation. But with great opportunity also comes drawbacks: The market is saturated, and AI makes it easier than ever for anyone to become a creator — which means it truly takes a special case to be sustainable and profitable. “Successful creators will be those who generate unique insight, can talk about unique experiences, and are able to truly build trust,” says Jay Clouse, founder of Creator Science. We got the insider scoop from Jay and

Facebook is home to nearly 2 billion monthly active users, so it’s safe to say that having a compelling Facebook Business Page is essential for any company looking to bolster its online presence. It should be easy enough, right? Just slap together a photo and a couple of posts and expect the leads and customers to roll in, right? Not quite. If you’re not creating a Facebook Page with a comprehensive strategy to get noticed, Liked, and engaged, the chances of generating leads and customers from it are slim. To help you out, we created a helpful guide for creating your Facebook Business Page, and we compiled the tips below to ensure your page takes full advantage of everything Facebook marketing offers. Listen to an audio summary of this post: How to Design a Facebook Business Page 1. Create your page. A Facebook Business Page isn’t a user account like

Like many others, I get dozens of emails a day.  If the subject line’s irrelevant to my interests, I’m scrolling by and ignoring it. Or, worse, I might click on an email and hit the unsubscribe button after deciding it wasn’t worth my time. If you’re a marketer, you want to avoid scrolling and unsubscribes at all costs. If your email goes unopened because your messaging missed your target, was the content you created within it even worth it? To effectively engage and convert potential customers, you need to leverage behavioral targeting tools that enable you to deliver personalized and relevant messaging to your unique audience segments .  Fortunately, there’s a wide range of tools available that can help you meet your audiences where they are. Below, we’ll explore some of the top behavioral targeting tools that can level up your marketing strategy. Top Behavioral Targeting Tools HubSpot Behavioral Targeting

If your business sends a lot of emails, whether for transactional or marketing purposes, you might be concerned about the new email rules from Gmail and Yahoo Mail that are coming in February 2024. These rules aim to protect people’s inboxes from spam and unwanted emails, by making senders take a few extra steps before they send their campaigns. The good news is that most of these requirements aren’t actually new; they’re existing best practices that many marketers already follow. So, if you’re doing email marketing right, you can rest easy! But if you’re not sure whether you’re following these rules correctly, don’t worry. We’ve created this guide to help you understand everything and ensure that you’re taking the necessary steps. We’ll also let you know what each email marketing service is doing, or not doing, to assist marketers in meeting these new requirements. What are Gmail and Yahoo Mail’s

I’ve abandoned numerous websites that were crammed with excessive text and bulky images due to their challenging navigation and overly bookish appearance. Being both a marketer and a customer in one, I naturally lean towards using icons. They are visually appealing, convey information and intent instantly, and make clicking effortless. But not all businesses use icons to their full potential. So, I scrutinized dozens of websites and apps and talked to industry experts who’ve witnessed the “iconicness” of icons to gather their insights. Explore how to use marketing and sales icons in the best ways possible. We’ll cover: Why use icons in marketing and sales materials? 5 Examples of Marketing and Sales Icons 7 Best Practices for Using Marketing and Sales Icons When Not to Use Icons Free Marketing Icons Free Sales Icons Why use icons in marketing and sales materials? Photography and typography are limited in business communication, and

Google first warned earlier this year that they’re going to retire accounts that haven’t been accessed at all in the past two years. This affects Gmail accounts — if nobody’s home, no emails have been read, nothing’s going on, Google is now likely to shut down that account. They warned us that the soonest they would start shutting down accounts is December 2023. Well, December is now here. What should we do about it? If you’re a Google user and don’t want to lose that Gmail account, or lose any other data that may be associated with your Google account (files, photos, etc.), Google explained in a recent notification what you can do to make sure that Google continues to denote your account as active. In short? Log in, poke at something. Reply to an email. Edit a file. Show a sign of life. If you’re an email newsletter or email

If you’re like many people, you’ve likely been tempted to impulsively buy a pull out your credit card for a product or service you saw in an Instagram Reel with an incredibly convenient link to shop.  Today, most generations see social media as their preferred platform for product discovery, while 87% of social media marketers who sell on their channels say its effective. Nearly 60% even note social media sales have increased year over year.  But, once you place your products or services on social media stores or pages, how do you ensure they achieve solid sales? To do this, consider leveraging social media selling tools.  In this blog post, we’ll go over: What are social selling tools? Best Social Selling Tools Best Social Selling Tools Social Selling Software HubSpot Social Media Management Software Source HubSpot’s Social Media Management Software is a comprehensive social media tool that can boost your

I’m willing to bet that you, as a marketer, you have experience with email marketing and SEO. If you’re a beginner, you’ve at least heard of both strategies and maybe done a bit of research into them. Regardless of your level of experience, you might still be wondering which is a more worthwhile investment for your business. In this post, I’ll discuss all things email marketing vs. SEO, from how marketers currently use both strategies to making them face off in the ring against key marketing goals. Table of Contents A Quick Refresher on Email Marketing and SEO Email Marketing vs. SEO – What are marketers saying? Email Marketing vs. SEO – A Comparison Against Marketing Goals Email Marketing vs. SEO – The Verdict A Quick Refresher on Email Marketing and SEO Email marketing is sending content to a list of subscribers via email, like weekly update newsletters, promotional emails

Optimizing your website to generate leads is a no-brainer. However, it’s not as simple as throwing a “Click Here” button on your home page and watching the leads pour in. Instead, marketers and designers need to take a more strategic approach. In this post, we’ll go over some quick ways that actually work to optimize your website for lead generation. Table of Contents How to Create a Lead Generation Website How to Increase Leads on Your Website How to Create a Lead Generation Website To understand how to optimize our website, we’ll have to first gain a basic understanding of the lead generation process. What components are at play when a casual website visitor turns into a lead? The lead generation process typically starts when a website visitor clicks on a call-to-action (CTA) located on one of your site pages or blog posts. That CTA leads them to a landing