The last few weeks, animated gifs have been used in retail emails at a proportion that rivals levels seen during December, when animation is traditionally used the most. Retailers were obviously very pleased with the boost that animation gave their emails this past holiday season and have committed themselves to using the design tactic more during the rest of the year. While animated gifs can inject excitement into an email and allow it to convey certain kinds of information much more effectively than static images can, there are a few limitations to be aware of:

I certainly would not classify myself as the average email consumer. A big part of my job involves email marketing. I subscribe to hundreds of email lists and am constantly critiquing emails. (Note: I use Gmail filters to label and auto-archive most messages.) Friends, family, acquaintances, clients, industry peers, and co-workers send me dozens of emails asking for feedback. Some forward messages with notes like, "Wow! Can you believe this one?"

Many email marketers continue to search for the right frequency, asking, "How many emails can we send before we drive away too many subscribers and turn increased short-term gains into lowered long-term results?" To me, however, the key question is "How do we send more relevant emails more often but with fewer resources?"

We loved Loren McDonald's April 8 column, "What B2B and B2C Marketers Can Learn from Each Other," which covered the gamut of strategic differences and similarities for B2B and B2C marketers to consider. After Lisa's B2B vs. B2C "Family Feud" panel session at the Email Insider Summit, we thought it would be fun to offer a follow-up that puts a creative spin on the same topic, with help from our fabulous EIS panelists. Major shout-outs go to Jennifer Davis of IHG (B2C), Amber-Marie Jacquez of CareCredit (B2B) and Kris Zimmerman of Under Armour (B2C) for their awesome insights -- you …

For many businesses, email is their cockpit. It is through email that their customers experience much of the company's brand, and how they navigate through and into the company's offerings. Like a car, it's comforting to step in and find everything exactly the way you like it. But also like a car, it's exhilarating to upgrade to this year's model, with modern looks, features and smells. When you're considering an email redesign, how do you strike a balance between consistency and innovation? How do you find the middle ground between boring and inscrutable?

With the emergence of socially engineered experiences and connectivity, the world of data quality got a lot harder. Our view of a lead will change from "when will they buy and how much" to "how much influence do they have over the buying decision -- and who else is involved in this decision?" This unstructured data will present many challenges for marketing automation systems.