What was popular in 2014

December seems like as good a time as any to do a retrospective look at my blog posts from the past year. I like to see what were the popular posts that I wrote to get an understanding of what resonated – and what didn’t. Using page views as the sole metric for success, here were the top-viewed posts on my blog in 2014:

Gmail’s spam filter, responsive design and preheader tips – posted June 2, 2014
Changes with Gmail – posted April 1, 2014
6 tips to starting and maintaining a birthday email program – posted July 29, 1014
Email lessons learned from Scoutmob – posted June 10, 2013
Happy Birthday (email) to me! – posted February 20, 2012
It’s Time to Say Thank you – posted November 19, 2014

What can we take away from the above list?

• Take note of the platforms your recipients are using to view your emails
• Feel-good messages like birthday emails and thank you’s are important

Starting with the obvious: Gmail is a popular topic. It resonated with blog readers and subscribers as well as with visitors who came to these posts by way of a search. No surprise that Gmail is popular among email marketers given that 40% of US smart phones have the Gmail app installed.

Two birthday posts ranked well this year and only one of them was written in 2014 (the other is two years old). My 2013 post was also popular among all posts last year. So what gives? Birthday emails are low hanging fruit (read the posts to see why). And with marketing automation becoming popular, birthday emails even easier to send, it’s no surprise that folks would be looking for information about launching a birthday email program.

As for the popularity of my Scoutmob post, which was written in 2013, I think it’s more a testament to the popularity of the daily deal app than my writing. Scoutmob is an amazing brand and their emails have been a steady source of fun things to do in Atlanta for a long time, which appeals to loyalists of the brand.

As for the last post on the list, which was the one most recently posted before this, it makes me happy to see it on the list. The popularity of the post is verification of the point of the post: it’s important to pause from barraging your customers with demands.

Next month I’ll get back to the regularly scheduled programming with tips and resources for your program. In the meantime, have a happy new year. May these holidays be filled with light and love for you and those you love.