The best practices for email marketing including having a clear, relevant subject line that communicates the value of opening the email to the recipient.  As spam filters get better, spammers are modifying their subject lines and going in the opposite direction.  Used to be, spam subject lines clearly offered cures for certain anatomical inadequacies, access to off-shore Vicodin, etc.  You knew what you were getting if you opened them, so, after a while, people didn’t.  Today a piece of spam got through my ISP’s filter.  Its subject line read: His bed or If the cause thee an horse And he to receive a therefore. Goal #1 was to beat the spam filter.  Mission accomplished.  But what of email best practice?  So much established digital innovation has its origin in dark recesses of human behavior, and spam would not continue to be sent if it did not lead to ROI.  It follows that spammers must be finding that cryptic, bizarre subject lines are actually inspiring opens and clicks.  Will more legitimate direct marketers take a lesson from this?  Could that subject line one day lead to information about laundry detergent?  If I ever open one, I guess I’ll find out.

Matt Rosenberg

Well, yesterday Organic's CEO--Mark Kingdon--was featured in the Wall Street Journal in their ongoing series, "Questions for...."  I highly encourage you to read the story as it is one of the best summaries of Organic's approach to social media and the promise of emerging platforms.

Amanda Van Nuys

I am a slave to Outlook. Every morning, I try to slog through all of my accumulated email before I get to the office so I can get ahead and focus on what's important.  Its a never-ending battle. I know. If I'd write fewer emails, I'd probably receive fewer responses requiring a reply.  Anyway, something amusing happened today as I sat down to slog through my email box.  I received my first email from the future!  Yes, the future!  Check the image of my email inbox above.  Is Microsoft now so in control of our desktops and our lives that they can actually transmit emails to us from the future? Yes!  And what a wonderful way to get ahead.  Every Sunday, I'd like to get the next week's email in one batch so I can get them behind me and focus on what's important for the rest of the week.  Now that I've shared that, I need to get back to work.

P.S. I asked Tamir (our head of IT) how this happened.  In true Tamir-fashion he pointed out that somewhere in the world, today is actually tomorrow.  Thank you for that global perspective, Tamir.

Mark Kingdon

Welcome to the first post on AllHands.Organic.com--our company blog. The objective of the blog is to open up communications--in essence to turn ourselves inside-out--in order to have a more real and open dialog (and debate) with people inside and outside of the company.

Our company has added almost 200 new Organics in the last 12 months. With this level of growth, I want to make sure that we Organics get and stay connected to our new people and the people considering Organic to have a real, unvarnished view of what to expect inside.

On AllHands.Organic.com, you'll hear stories from inside the company from the people across our network. I hope that you'll learn something about us you don't already know.

Welcome!

Mark Kingdon