New GroupMail Video Tutorial Available

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Tom O'Leary

I’ve added another GroupMail video tutorial to the library. Sometimes, trying to explain how to configure the Subscriber Add-on to process unsubscribes and bounces makes it sound more complicated than it actually is.

To that end, I thought that a short video would make it easier to understand – because it’s really not difficult. In fact, it’s very easy.

How to Configure GroupMail’s Subscriber Add-on to Process Unsubscribe Requests

You can find a complete list of GroupMail video tutorials on our GroupMail blog.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day (The Fields of Athenry)

Posted on March 17, 2009 by Tom O'Leary


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Using Skip Logic in Online Surveys

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Tom O'Leary

Sometimes, the way that a survey respondent answers one question will dictate whether other questions in the survey are relevant to them. For example, if someone answers that they are less than 16 years old, then a question about their driving experience might not be relevant (at least in a legal sense.) That is where skip logic comes into play.

Skip logic, or conditional branching as it is sometimes known, allows you to change the course that your respondents take through a survey based on answers they give to certain questions. You do this by creating skip rules. For example, if you create a survey and ask your respondents if they are male or female. You could create some skip rules based on this, that would then direct them to a certain page based on their response. Men for example, might bypass questions about their menstrual cycles, etc.

For more information about using skip logic in surveys, read Using Skip Logic in GroupSurveys.

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Embedding Video in Email

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Tom O'Leary

More and more people want to create multimedia email campaigns. It’s a good idea. People like multimedia content and a short video can make information more interesting and memorable than several long paragraphs of text. YouTube’s success stems from our thirst for short video content.

But is email the right platform for video? Until recently, email marketers linked recipients to their multimedia campaign elements, and currently the best practice is to include a hyperlinked screenshot of the video to give the impression that the video is embedded but which actually links to a video hosted online.

Today, many marketers are interested in putting their video messages directly in front of email recipients. It makes sense and it is a noble pursuit. But it’s difficult enough to get simple HTML to render successfully in different email clients. How the heck will embedded video survive the non-standard format of email? It might not be as problematic as you think – if senders can crunch the file size small enough.

Mark Brownlow discusses the nuances of embedding video in email.

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Inspiration and Superstition on Friday the 13th

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tom O'Leary

So, today is the ominous Friday the 13th. I find it interesting how certain memes are borne and become culturally significant over time.

There are a few different theories about how Friday the 13th became associated with bad luck. One suggests that it is actually a combination of two separate superstitions (the day Friday and the number 13.) Another theory points to Norse Mythology as the possible origin. Others suggest that it is related to the Knights Templar or a combination of pagan, Christian and the Battle of Hastings [delve deeper if you dare]

But rather than get swept up by the superstitious mantra of the day, I kept busy in the same way that I do on Mondays or Tuesdays or any other day of the week. Here are some interesting and inspirational links that I encountered on this Friday the 13th.

In Search of Dolphin Leather – Seth Godin

Text and Narration on Screen (with a twist) – Garr Reynolds

2009 Readiness (Part 3) – Steve Yastrow

Paraplegic Man Suffers Spider Bite, Walks Again – Mike Dello Stritto for CBS

Patti Maes (MIT) demos wearable tech at TED

If you are superstitious, I wish you luck today. If not, I hope that you find some inspiration in the links above.

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