DMA Strengthens Leadership Position with New Offerings for Email Marketers.
New York, July 9, 2007 — As part of ongoing efforts to add value and improve strategic insights for businesses and nonprofit organizations using interactive marketing channels, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today announced three new initiatives that strengthen its offerings for members involved in email marketing.
To deepen and broaden its expertise in the channel, DMA has announced an agreement to merge its Email Marketing Council with the Email Experience Council (EEC), a leading independent global organization that brings not only thought leadership but also practical problem-solving capabilities to the email marketing community.
DMA also announced today an agreement with Return Path to develop a new online tool to help email marketers better navigate the complexities of authentication and benchmark their progress against other key reputation indicators.
In addition, DMA’s Research and Market Intelligence team will publish an anthology of white papers on expert-level practices and how to implement them, and will focus its next Creative Series report on the email channel.
“As interactive channels continue their explosive growth, we have to marshal our resources to help marketers use these channels effectively,” said DMA President & CEO John A. Greco, Jr. “Maximizing the potential of email marketing is crucial to the continued success of many organizations, so we are particularly pleased to be working together with some of the most respected names in the email space to provide these new offerings for our members.”
US companies spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006, an amount that is expected to double by 2011, according to DMA’s latest economic impact research.
Email Experience Council Merges with DMA’s Email Marketing Council
Launched in 2006, the Email Experience Council has quickly become a leading voice in promoting the positive impact and importance of email as a marketing tool, communications vehicle, and branding device. Made up of thought leaders from the email marketing community, the EEC has established itself as a premier knowledge base not only for thought-leadership and best practices but also for problem-solving and emerging practices.
DMA’s Email Marketing Council (formerly the Council for Responsible Email) has provided leadership to the marketing community in setting standards and promoting best practices for responsible email marketing. Since the channel’s inception, the Email Marketing Council has led high-profile efforts, including authoring the industry’s first deliverability and append best practices, co-founding the Authentication Summit, and sponsoring numerous high-impact educational programs and networking functions.
As part of DMA’s agreement to acquire the EEC, the memberships of EEC and DMA’s Email Marketing Council will merge under the EEC name. The combined group will continue to promote best practices to guide marketers in developing successful email programs. The new EEC will also play an active role helping to shape the policies and standards that will drive the future of the channel.
Jeanniey Mullen, EEC senior partner and executive director for global email marketing at OgilvyOne Worldwide, will serve as co-executive chair of the new combined organization, along with Michael Della Penna, chief marketing officer for Epsilon and chair of DMA’s Email Marketing Council.
“The EEC is a community. It is a self-propelled and dynamic marketplace of expertise that fosters a collaborative approach to solving challenges and a unified approach for identifying the future of email marketing,” said Mullen. “We’re excited to deliver even more value, expertise, and political representation to our members by joining forces with DMA.”
New Partnership to Help DMA Members Authenticate Emails
Two of the greatest challenges email marketers face are ensuring their messages are compliant with the appropriate laws and regulations, and that they are “approved” by spam filters so they actually arrive in the inboxes of their intended recipients.
To help address both of these issues, DMA in 2006 began to require its members to authenticate their commercial email. However, the complexities of the various authentication protocols continue to make this a difficult process for many marketers. To help make it easier, DMA earlier this year launched an online Email Authentication Help Center.
To enhance this service, DMA is working with Return Path to develop a new Email Reputation Registry that will verify a sender’s compliance with regulatory requirements and score the sender’s technical practices against industry benchmarks. The free service will launch later this year, giving DMA member companies unprecedented access to third-party data about their email programs. In addition to providing authentication assistance, the registry will also help DMA members identify potential infrastructure security holes, verify CAN-SPAM compliance, and measure end-user spam complaints.
“We are excited to be working with DMA to provide this service,” said Matt Blumberg, chairman & CEO of Return Path and chairman of DMA’s Interactive Marketing Advisory Board. “The Email Reputation Registry will be a key element of DMA’s ongoing efforts to help curb spam and phishing and promote higher quality email marketing.”
DMA Research Initiatives Expand Understanding of Email Marketing
DMA today also outlined two research initiatives that will help marketers achieve greater success in the email channel. One builds on a breakthrough finding from DMA’s recent benchmarking study, Actionable Insights into Email Marketing, which found that self-assessed level of expertise — beginner, intermediate, and expert — correlated with email practices and their business results. The follow-on effort will be an anthology of white papers that document how marketers actually migrate from one competence level to the next.
“The destination is clear but not how to get there,” explained Peter Johnson, PhD, DMA’s vice president for research and market intelligence. “The follow-on anthology will help map an improvement path for marketers by focusing on expert-level practices and how to implement them.”
In addition, DMA announced today that the next edition of its Creative Benchmarks series will focus on the email channel, assessing the popularity and effectiveness of different creative elements as well as testing strategies and the integration of email and other channels.
“In helping our members become more relevant, responsible, and successful marketers, some of the most valuable resources we have to offer are clear, measurable insights on what works and what doesn’t,” said Greco. “We have done tremendous work over the past year to identify how marketers improve internally, and to identify how consumers respond to marketing messages. Now we are going to work to apply those findings to the unique considerations of the rapidly advancing world of email marketing.”
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About Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association for business and nonprofit organizations that use and support multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable and appropriate offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process.
Founded in 1917, DMA today represents more than 3,600 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 50 other nations, including a majority of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.
In 2006, marketers — commercial and nonprofit — spent $166.5 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated $1.93 trillion in incremental sales. Last year, direct marketing accounted for 10.3 percent of total US gross domestic product (GDP). Today, there are 1.7 million direct marketing employees in the US alone, whose collective sales efforts directly support 8.8 million other jobs. That accounts for 10.5 million US jobs.
The Power of Direct: Relevance. Responsibility. Results.
DMA Creates Email Powerhouse.
New York, July 9, 2007 — As part of its ongoing commitment to growing and strengthening all sectors within the multichannel marketing environment, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has reached an agreement to merge its Email Marketing Council with the Email Experience Council, LLC, (EEC) a global organization of marketing professionals.
“As email continues to expand and become an ever-larger part of the marketing mix, DMA is committed to educating businesses and nonprofit organizations about how they can most effectively and responsibly leverage this vital communications channel,” said DMA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan. “The combination of the Email Marketing Council and the EEC creates the leader among professional organizations for email marketers.”
Since the inception of email marketing, DMA’s Email Marketing Council (formerly the Council for Responsible Email) has promoted email’s effective and ethical use as a marketing and customer service tool. Championing the point of view of the inbox owner/end-user, the EEC has been devoted to enhancing the image of email marketing and communications to consumers and businesses. Combined, the new council will afford members unprecedented access to industry insight, best practices, and networking, as well as robust political advocacy and research capabilities.
“DMA and its Email Marketing Council have a proud record of achievement: We promulgated the first email delivery and append best practices, spearheaded widespread marketer adoption of email authentication solutions, and have hosted countless seminars and events that have helped marketers distinguish their communications in the inbox and have improved the consumer experience,” said Michael Della Penna, chief marketing officer for Epsilon and chair of DMA’s Email Marketing Council. “We’re excited to join forces with the EEC, which will help us to further expand and accelerate our education and community efforts around optimizing email marketing success and improving the customer experience.”
“In just one year, the EEC has become an important destination for marketers to interact (virtually and in person) on email marketing and the enormous opportunities this media offers marketers,” said Jeanniey Mullen, EEC founder and senior partner and executive director for global email marketing at OgilvyOne Worldwide. “Our community construct has offered access to self-propelled and dynamic marketplace expertise that fosters a collective, unified approach to creating best practices and setting the stage for the future of email marketing. By joining forces with DMA, we’ll be able to deliver even more value, expertise, and resources to our members, and will be able to greatly expand our influence and reach in the marketplace. This is about coming together and building a powerhouse that will lead the next phase of email marketing.”
The combined council includes more than 400 active participants, including marketers, vendors, and suppliers. As part of DMA’s agreement to acquire the EEC, the memberships of the EEC and the Email Marketing Council will combine under the Email Experience Council name.
Mullen and Della Penna will serve as the co-executive chairs of the new group. Stephanie Miller, vice president for strategic services at Return Path, will serve as vice-chair of the group and lead the overall integration process.
Current committees and roundtables within the two organizations will combine as appropriate. The current events and initiatives of both groups will go on as planned. Members of the combined group will also have access to a wealth of white papers, discounted research offerings, published industry best practices, and resources such as DMA’s online Email Authentication Help Center.
For current EEC members who have not yet joined the Direct Marketing Association, DMA will be offering six months of free access to DMA member-only resources, such as legislative updates, research, and event discounts, and access to tools such as the E-Mail Reputation Registry announced today (http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/disppressrelease?article=961). If an EEC member chooses to join DMA, DMA will also offer 50 percent of the first year’s membership for that company.
“Over the coming months, we will work thoughtfully and carefully to marry the strengths of these two groups in the most effective way possible,” said Miller. “In creating the expanded EEC, we have the opportunity to unleash a powerful combination of strength and channel expertise for marketers around the world.”
“Today’s announcement is part of DMA’s continued efforts to help marketers work to better advantage within the interactive marketplace,” concluded Ratan. “As these two groups come together, we look forward to announcing a range of exciting new opportunities and offerings for email marketers in the months to come.”
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About DMA
The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today represents more than 3,600 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 50 other nations, including a majority of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.
In 2006, marketers — commercial and nonprofit — spent $166.5 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated $1.93 trillion in incremental sales. Last year, direct marketing accounted for 10.3 percent of total US GDP. Also, there are today 1.7 million direct marketing employees in the US alone. Their collective sales efforts directly support 8.8 million other jobs. That accounts for 10.5 million US jobs.
The mission of DMA’s E-Mail Marketing Council is to promote the most effective and ethical use of e-mail as a marketing and customer service tool by articulating ethical guidelines, by promoting best practices, and by serving as a forum for leaders to confer and collaborate as the industry evolves.
About the Email Experience Council
The EEC is a global professional organization striving to enhance the image of email marketing and communications, while celebrating and advocating its importance in business, and its ROI value. The EEC is committed to regularly conducting a broad series of email initiatives for a variety of organizations that highlight the positive impact and importance of email as a marketing tool, communications vehicle and branding device. Additionally, EEC members are setting the standards for email through Marketing Roundtables. The EEC members belonging are representative of other trade organizations, agencies, advertisers, technology partners, clients and companies focused on the potential of email marketing via mobile and other digital devices.
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