Exact Target Content Audit as of 08-11-2013

"Going mobile" isn't a one-and-done process of securing a phone number and sending a few texts. Every channel is mobile, and every mobile interaction is an opportunity to drive engagement and increase your brand's status as a staple in your...

Each Thursday at 11am EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget user community on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry. We call this virtual coffee chat the ExactTarget Café. During this week's #ETCafe chat, we were excited to feature questions and contributors from the Digital Marketing Town Hall .

"Was there a moment when you first realized you had the potential to lead?" "Well I've never woken up and said, 'Oh I'm a leader.' But I've found in my career that I've been in the same situation over and over where I'm in charge of a project that affects lots of people.

The health of your sales funnel doesn't just depend on your sales team. It should come as no surprise that marketing plays an equally large role in accelerating (or slowing down!) the speed of your pipeline.

It has been interesting to watch the maturation of social media and social business over the past eight years. I spent much of my early twenties buried in the community-driven world of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. I would even point to the last days of Geocities as the start of my fascination (and obsession) with communities on the Internet.

The marketing world is a giant jungle. There are way too many decisions to be made in a single day. Just considering what medium to use to tell a story can be problematic when you are trying to pick from 60+ different marketing channels.

Tom Sather from Return Path reports that their own analysis shows that highly engaged subscribers actually seem to open more messages after the rollout of Google's new tabbed inbox user interface. In the medium tier, open rates dipped a tiny bit, but not lethally so.

Over the last few years I have mainly worked for international companies, and I have become accustomed to working across cultural differences, time zones, digital marketing preferences, and, of course, languages. And one thing I have come to understand is that being able to "speak local," especially in email marketing, will increase your open rates, click through rates, and ultimately your ROI.

It seems like everywhere you look these day's there is a new sales or marketing tool popping up and promising the world. Sorting the tools that can really benefit your team from the riff-raff is a daily challenge for marketers.

"What's an example of leadership that's influenced your life?" "Growing up, my parents were always involved in our neighborhood. My dad's always taken what he's passionate about and brought others along with that. I think it's less revolutionary and more about quiet leadership, where you're living in a way that could be inspiring."

This could very well be one of the top questions any marketer asks. Some have figured it out for their business, others not. Or, their business is very fluid and the strategies that worked once before, no longer work now.

This is one of a series of posts providing more details about the trends and tactics discussed in the Email Marketing Holiday Calendar. We'll follow up with additional posts throughout the year. August Preview We expect overall promotional email volume...

At some point, almost every social media marketer has felt it: It'd be more likely for Mark Zuckerberg to show up at my house with a kegerator than for my brand's Facebook content to appear in fans' news feeds.

The ExactTarget team invites you to participate in our #ETCafe Twitter chat every Thursday from 11am-12pm EDT, where we discuss emerging topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. This virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by @ExactTarget. During this week's #ETCafe, we are excited to feature questions from the Digital Marketing Town Hall.

To celebrate the launch of their online store, DonorsChoose.org partnered with fellow ExactTarget client Warby Parker to create a limited edition pair of sunglasses called the "Gardner." The campaign launched on July 30 with emails sent by both Warby Parker and DonorsChoose.org to their subscribers.

It's ok if you're a little confused-or even overwhelmed-by the whole idea of content marketing. Depending on your perspective, content marketing is either a totally new concept that seems to have come out of nowhere, or a brand new name for the things you're already doing.

With the proliferation of mobile channels comes an increased desire to recognize the customer at every touch point. QR code scanner, mobile or desktop site visitor, app downloader, email/SMS subscriber, fan, follower, pinner, reviewer, or store visitor - the customer is interacting with our brands, and we want to know about it.

It all began on a lunch break. Thumbing through Facebook on my phone, I stopped to look at a post on Humans of New York (HONY), a blog by photographer Brandon Stanton that provides glimpses into the lives of strangers in New York City. What is it about this blog that's so compelling, so captivating?

Looking for ways to increase Facebook engagement? Take some tips from MTD! MTD recently completed a social media campaign for their Troy-Bilt product line that added more than 12,800 new "Likes" on Facebook and more than 440 new email subscribers. The Built For Life Photo Contest utilized a custom Facebook tab built with SocialPages powered by ExactTarget.

To make your holiday planning even easier, we've created a new pdf version of the Email Marketing Holiday Calendar. With helpful statistics, useful messaging themes, and reminders of important days, you'll want to print these out and hang them around the office so you can write in your planned campaigns.

As we continue to move into the age of the empowered consumer and relationships become more and more important, the ability to build 1-to-1 relationships on a dramatic scale, automatically, is a must-have for marketers. And it pays dividends. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost.

The good news is that there are now many more ways to grow your list of subscribers than ever before. The bad news is that all those additional sources of subscribers have created a lot more complexity, which can make QA difficult and cloud performance.

Welcome to another edition of the Baer Facts! This is part two of our Gmail and Google series. Check out part one where we talk about the new Gmail Inbox design. We recently noticed that Google has moved their ad placement to different parts of the inbox with the launch of the new inbox.

Last week marked the conclusion of HubExchange Week, where we celebrated the launch of the ExactTarget HubExchange Marketplace. We had so much fun highlighting the marketplace and new integrated apps to our clients and friends.

After releasing The Best of the Email Swipe File, we asked some of our partners to give us their take on our selections. In this video response, DEG Creative Director of Digital Direct and eCRM Cara Olson shares her thoughts on multiple...