• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 21, 2010

The last panel at MediaPost’s Email Insider Summit ended where it should have: a look towards the future. Evan Adlman, a vice president at Pontiflex, suggested email marketers will face a challenge in delivering messages to the many inboxes people will have on the growing types of devices.

“Five years from now, it will be all about using different devices and getting to those people at different times,� he said.

A multi-channel strategy is going to be “critical,� AdKnowledge’s Mike Fitzgerald added. Marketers will not only have to stay on top of the hardware, but behavior such as how many people are Facebook-ing from an iPhone.

On the question of the lifetime value of a name on an email list, panelists agreed it’s difficult to pinpoint. But Prospectiv’s Erin Hegarty said the best way to find out is “testing and measurement, and optimization.� Email is “easily measurable� and since it is so affordable, it offers a rich playing field for that.