Reason to Travel #3: To Find Yourself

I hear more and more people doing what I’m going to call “genetic tourism:” seeking their heritage by going back to where they think they’re from, or where DNA says their parents, grandparents or distant relatives came from, and learning about themselves by tracing their family stories or genes.

Two years ago, Ancestry.com partnered with Go Ahead Tours and began offering genealogy-themed trips across Europe. Ancestry.com also worked with Cunard and the Queen Mary 2 to put together a westbound transatlantic cruise where passengers would retrace the steps their ancestors took from England to America, with genealogists offering workshops and telling stories each day. In 2020, another QM 2 cruise will coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage, where many Americans can now trace their own beginnings.

The depth of each journey is dictated by the individual; some genetic travelers just want to see the country they most identify with, while others aren’t satisfied until they find the old family farm, local records and gravestones going back a dozen generations.

Travel

Amanda Steward

Epublishing Project Manager

Email Marketing
Marketing

Published 3/19/19

7 Tips to Keep Your Email Subscriber Form Compliant

Last year it was GDPR; a few years before that it was CASL; and even before that it was CAN SPAM. Rules regarding how to gain new subscribers, and what you need to do to ensure you can keep them on your list, are changing.

With each new set of rules, updates to your form need to happen. While this may be time consuming, in the end these changes will most likely help you to make sure you are only adding highly engaged subscribers. Not only that, but it will also help increase your deliverability. If you are new to email marketing, or just want to double check that you have all the information you need to set up your new form, below is a list of things your online subscribe form must have.

Have an unchecked box that states they are giving you permission to send emails. It can be something as simple as, “Yes, please send me email about…” If you are sending emails that are from your partners, then I would recommend a second box that addresses emails from your partners with wording such as, “Yes, please send me emails with information about partners.” The box has to be unchecked or it will not be in accordance with CASL

Email Marketing
Marketing

Steven Keith

Account Director/Senior Content Director

Content
Marketing

Published 3/14/19

Why Click-Bait Gets a Bad Rap – But Shouldn’t

We’ve all seen the links.

“We say goodbye to Kelly Ripa!” or “American Icon Clint Eastwood gone too soon!”

We know they’re not true, but how many of us click on them anyway out of sheer curiosity, just to see what crazy things the interwebs have to say that day?

That’s exactly what the folks who wrote those misleading links want you to do. They’ll say whatever it takes to get a user to click, because – sadly – it works.

These are the shysters who give “click-bait” a bad name, which is a terrible thing. Because when utilized correctly to deliver the content promised, attention-grabbing link text is a beautiful thing – an incredibly effective marketing tool that gets your content seen by the people who want it.

Few do this more effectively than GQ magazine, whose enewsletter I curse (secretly praise) for how well they keep me clicking day after day after day.