As you "should" know, a plain text version of your email is vital for inbox access. Way back in the days before the Web or email existed, you sent plain text messages between computers/terminals, the file was a header, and the content was plain text. Then later on, HTML was bolted onto the bottom of the mime, and email marketing grew out of that. Over time, more and more inboxes would render the HTML -- and now, pretty much all of them do so by default, even on BlackBerrys! So nowadays, once you have made your HTML version, you just …

Brands are doing amazing work with innovating email and are sure to be reaping the rewards. However, not all companies are able to compete with the big players; you may not have the resources or staff, or it may not be easy to request budget for "responsive design" when the board has other priorities. Whatever the case, these simple steps, even with limited HTML knowledge, will get you through until your next template redesign.

Over the years I've discovered that many email marketers perform email marketing as their job, yet they don't use many of the basic principles of marketing that other channels, both online and offline, use. It seems many email marketers are not actually focused on marketing at all, but instead simply emphasize creating and sending

Last month, results of a Webtrends survey polling the email habits of 2,000 British consumers over the age of 18 revealed that on average people have 260 unopened emails sitting in their inbox. And 56% of these unread messages were from brands that consumers opted-in to receive communications from. So why are consumers choosing not to open more than half of the branded emails they receive?

What will email marketers be doing next to evolve their email programs? According to the 2014 Forrester Wave Email Marketing Vendors report, the strategies that attract the most interest are those not yet in use by enterprise e-mail senders, but on their wish list: