Oh, you know this somewhere within your retail soul, you e-commerce junkies. Those of you who--like me--will do most of your holiday shopping online understand intuitively the power of branded, well-executed e-mail campaigns. Otherwise, why would we so eagerly open those offers we've been getting from Sierra Traders, Cabela's, or GolfSmith (if you're me), or Saks, Best Buy, Circuit City or some other high-end or targeted retailer (for others among you).

Fact is, if you have purchased something online from a brand you trust, and you receive e-mail offers from that brand, chances are that you'll not just open it--you'll scroll down to the bottom and see what kind of promotional offer will get you that additional 10 percent discount (or $15 off any $100 purchase at Circuit City).

Think about it, what segment of interactive has the power that e-mail has over the user's attention? Somebody somewhere has to be conducting a brand awareness study on e-mail, because there is no other interactive unit that commands the kind of undivided, self-selected attention that e-mail can.

When you see a banner ad unit, are you on that page to see the banner? Or, are you there to read something else? Sure, SEM and SEO are great pull marketing idioms. But, after a retailer draws a user with Search, how do they keep that user coming back, while providing the most contextual offers and measuring the results?

Partly thanks to Can Spam, E-mail is the way. When you open any branded retailer's e-mail message, you are in the store, experiencing the brand. You're there for no other reason than commerce. You're not there to read the news.

What does Can Spam have to do with it?

Well, Can Spam made all but opt-out e-mail marketing illegal, while marginalizing everything except opt-in e-mail. It put a real premium on branded e-mail--making some companies big winners and making other companies completely and thankfully disappear.

One of the more reputable and successful companies in the e-mail space has been supporting authentication as a means of further stratifying the wheat from the chaff in e-mail.

"Authentication is an industry-supported movement and while it is not a complete solution, it is the necessary first step toward creating a framework for combating spam and phishing," said Josh Baer, CEO of SKYLIST and co-chair of the E-mail Service Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) technology committee.

"The benefit of authentication is that it ensures your messages don't get blocked once the major ISPs start mandating authenticated e-mail. It already makes a difference at two of the biggest consumer ISPs-- Yahoo! and Hotmail," he added. "While it is not a complete solution, it is the necessary first step toward creating a framework for combating spam and phishing."

Raise your hand if you've been notified a dozen times this week that your PayPal, eBay, or other online account has been compromised, or that your Nigerian Rolex has been waiting for you at Customs. Nonsense spam like that almost always originates from offshore, and is mostly blocked by ISPs. Authentication could help cut this stuff in half or better.

Microsoft, Yahoo!, America Online, the ESPC, the Direct Marketing Association, the Internet Advertising Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission have all urged the e-mail marketing industry to adopt authentication standards. The ESPC and Direct Marketing Association (DMA) actually require members to implement an authentication standard. Mr. Baer, who is also an e-mail analyst for Ferris Research, estimated that, despite such measures, 50 percent of all online advertisers have not yet begun authenticating their outbound e-mail, a statistic that he finds shocking. "Sending unauthenticated e-mail messages will lead to a severe decrease in campaign performance and deliverability rates," he said.

Over time, I hope it does. But, for now, companies executing e-mail the right way are making the holidays hum right along, one inbox at a time. This will only get better as the industry continues to police itself. Look for e-mail--only executed the right way--to continue its tremendous growth in 2006.

This commentary is insightful. I recommend it to others.