The itracMarketer Blog - Your resource for the latest news on marketing automation, CRM and email marketing.

5 new CASL takeaways straight from the Chairman of the CRTC

On March 22nd the Chairman of the CRTC, Mr. Jean-Pierre Blais, spoke to members of the Canadian Marketing Association in Toronto. Mr. Blais’ speech focused on Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and served to give marketers an idea of what to expect in the near future covering a variety of topics from cybersecurity, the imminent second phase of the CASL law, to the legislation’s scope.

We’ve gone ahead and distilled the talk into some key takeaways:
CASL is here to stay
In his speech to the CMA, Mr. Blais made reference to the idea that many marketers consider him their enemy, likely speaking to some of the negative feedback the CRTC has received from Canadian marketers about the legislation. The message was clear: CASL “is here to stay”. In fact, Mr. Blais believes these laws will only get tougher with time as electronic fraud becomes more prevalent.
Not slaying dragons
While CASL isn’t going anywhere, he was quick to allay some of the fears that the CRTC was going to use […]

To the Cloud! – How the lines between email marketing and marketing automation are disappearing

Email remains one the most effective and popular marketing communication paths in 2015. Consistently offering unique methods of delivering communications, and increasing ROI in a wide range of campaign styles, types and promotions; and yet, email is only getting more sophisticated.

Putting your company on the leading edge of technology requires leading edge tools to multiply your email marketing campaign into a fully automated, personalized and contextual marketing automation system. The success rates are undeniable, but many sales and marketers don’t realize that they could increase the power of email substantially with marketing automation.

Marketing automation allows companies to use their gathered intelligence, and existing or newly gathered customer data to create advanced automated workflows to (automate repetitive and difficult tasks that will) generate/promote leads and to compile useful and valuable customer data. This data is then used to provide a personalized, and customer aware campaign immediately relevant and specific to your promotion and communication.

The field of Marketing Automation is growing at […]

Engage new customers with a well thought out welcome process.

Getting new customers is hard. Landing pages, social media, and email marketing are valuable tools for acquiring new business leads and potential clients. It is important to establish a flow of communication between your business and the client using a well planned welcome campaign and ‘on-boarding’ emails. Convert your clients post-signup using the tools and tips from itracMarketer.

So you have acquired a new sign up on your site using a contact form, or sign-up option. What’s next? Our customers already know they can build an automated workflow to send custom, personalized replies – a properly welcomed new customer is an ideal candidate to activate for relationship building and advocacy time and time again. What to write? Check out our tips below.

Explain why you are sending an email, with a clear call to action – A welcome email should have a clear statement and purpose. If the receiver is expected to perform a certain action, it should be obvious, straightforward […]

4 Factors To Consider When You are Planning An Email Marketing Campaign

Email Marketing is one of the most effective means of communicating with an audience to drive business.

If you’re not already using email marketing, I strongly suggest you hop on this band wagon.

For those of you who are already engaging in email marketing, there are a few things to consider before you start blasting out emails.

As with all marketing, you must first begin with an email marketing plan and strategy.

Here are four areas for digital marketers to consider as you plan out your email marketing campaigns:

1. Timing:

Deciding when to send out your emails is important. Sending out your emails at the right time will increase the likelihood that your emails will be opened and clicked. Essentially there is no exact time that will lead to successful email marketing campaign results all of the time, it all depends on a number of factors which are discussed below as well as some trial and error on your part. For example, if you test out different timing and […]

CASL Education – 6 things you need to know

Ever since the CRTC issued the Canadian Anti Spam Law (CASL) on July 1st 2014, digital marketers have been on edge. The new CASL law is not well understood and many have not spent the time to ensure that their email marketing practices are fully compliant. Once the CRTC slapped a 1.1 million dollar fine on Compu-Finer and then a $48,000 fine on Plentyoffish marketers were not only on edge, but they were spooked.

These two companies clearly violated the law, and they were punished for their mistakes. As a marketer you need to stay on the right side of the law.  Your email marketing efforts should keep the following six principles in mind in order to stay CASL compliant:

1. Confirmed Consent:

Using confirmed consent does not necessarily make your database CASL compliant. It’s an important part of being compliant, but there are other ways to ensure this by capturing the source and date of consent. Within the itracMarketer CASL compliance center, not only can […]

100 Reasons Why You Should Invest In Email Marketing

The average person picks up their smartphone 100 times a day. That’s once every 7 minutes or so.

Email has become a huge part of the mobile environment which means that you, as a marketer, have 100 opportunities each and every day to engage with your customers via their mobile device which they simply cannot live without.

Essentially, this means you can target your customers anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

It seems like only a few years ago when email was only accessible through your desktop/laptop and engagement was limited to the hours of the work day. Back then, emails could be ignored for hours or even days at a time. Now, consumers can’t ignore their emails as they carry them wherever they go.

With that being said, just because we know that our customers or potential customers have their email on them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week does not mean we can take advantage of them.

Email marketers must embrace the medium fully. This means […]