[Day 2] Email Insiders Summit – Email From the Outside In

David Baker, VP Email Solutions for Avenue A|Razorfish, opens up with a couple of comments and takes a poll of the audience, wherein roughly one-third are first time attendees. There is a 3:1 ratio of email marketers to service providers or vendors.

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The first keynote speaker is David Barlin, Sr. Product Mgr at Microsoft (Windows Live) who has a background in email since 1997. Once of the topics he plans to address is the proliferation of marketing silos. As an example, the lack of integration between the email and search channel.

A study by Microsoft showed how search conversion goes up 22% when consumer is also shown a display ad prior to the search activity. An Altel case study revealed a 56% increase versus search alone.

David, segways into discussing display advertising in email and shares the following key thought “Be top of mind where people plan their life.” He follows up later with some additional points:

• Understand your customer
• Hit the right Moment
• Spark the conversation
• Use brand to maximize ROI

Basically, Microsoft says it’s a good idea to combine search and display ads (ala AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) with your relevant emails to drive brand awareness and increased conversion.

Hotmail conducted a study with 15,000 participants around the world to better understand the top topics discussed in email. Not suprisingly travel, consumer electronic/gadget purchases, and social activities were at the top. Hotmail has made the study public domain, I’ll post as soon as I can get my hands on it.