Kirk R. Gray

I have a broad background in email marketing – building programs from the ground up to managing day-to-day operations to thinking strategically and making email a two-way communication vehicle to grow customer engagement.

I have been involved in email marketing for a long time. I have used many ESP’s and have come to the conclusion that they are all about the same. The most important system for me was a “home grown” system that we used at Military.com. Because of that system, I developed a passion and broad understanding for deliverability – sender reputation, sender scores, DKIM, and more.

In addition to my deliverability passion, I find that I am one of the few individuals who could be considered a “triple thread” when it comes to email marketing. I design my own layouts in Photoshop and Illustrator, slice that design, and code them for deployment by the ESP. Contrary to popular the belief of many creative designers, coding and designing email creative is not the same as print or coding for the web, not a lot of creative people understand that. Since I’m a bit of tech-nerd, I keep on top of emerging trends (mobile-friendly and adaptive design) and the growing list of email clients (desktop, web-based, and mobile).

I have been quoted in several publications for my contributions for Return Path’s Inbox Insight product. In addition, I manage my own blog – http://blog.browserspencer.com, which deals with email marketing and my personal adventures, and regularly contribute to blogs owned by Formstack (http://blog.formstack.com) and Online Learning Tips (http://www.onlinelearningtips.com) part of the American Public University System family of blogs.