Channel | Email

Call it visionary or call it too little, too late. But the top direct marketing trade group is now requiring that members observe e-mail authentication.

PTC, a firm that offers product lifecycle management tools, noticed something a year or two ago: Several of its value-added resellers were sending e-mail newsletters to their customers. But they varied in quality.

The board of directors of the Direct Marketing Association voted on Monday to require that all DMA members begin using e-mail authentication protocols.

THANKS TO E-MAIL LAWS IN Michigan and Utah, wine lovers in those states are having a tougher time learning about California wines. Fearing they could

You wouldn’t send a special report on small business tax relief to government clients, would you? That’s why CDW, a technology solutions provider, sends out separate weekly e-newsletters—CDW for businesses, and CDW-G for government and education recipients.

Todd Smart has strong views on e-mail newsletters. As well he might, for his company, BeTuitive Marketing, specializes in helping clients build relationships through e-newsletters and blogs.

It’s a familiar syndrome in the e-mail newsletter business. The first issue pulls a great open rate. Then the second issue goes out and the opens are in the lower double digits. Does this mean you have a turkey on your hands?

When you get to the point where you are offering multiple newsletters to your subscribers, consider creating an e-mail preference center, or a “Manage Your Subscriptions’ page

Herschell Gordon Lewis knows a few things about keeping fannies in seats. He directed cult movie classics like “Blood Feast” and “The Gore Gore Girls,” then repeated that success as a direct mail copywriter. Here's what he says about e-mail newsletters, and how to keep people opening them.

There’s good news and bad news for banks about phishing, the scam in which identity thieves masquerading as trusted companies send out e-mail to induce recipients to click on a link, go to a Web page and give up their personal information.