Marketing Services Provider Epsilon has launched the Email Response Network, allowing brands to automatically deploy messages to individual subscribers based on when they are most likely to click on them. Drawing on data from all its email clients and emphasizing clicks over opens, the service operates much like a targeted display ad network, serving email messages based on individual behavioral data. For example, a subscriber who regularly checks mail on her iPhone first thing in the morning would be more likely to respond to a promotion to download a new mobile app when on that device. A message requiring more …

Ask an email expert any question about email and the response is usually, "It depends. You should A/B test it to find out." No matter what you are testing, following the same set of rules produces the most accurate and replicable results. This list of 10 rules includes advice on how much, how long, what and when to test, as well as tips for interpreting results.

A new study by the IBM Institute of Business Value surveyed over 3,800 consumers in the U.S., U.K., China, France, Germany and Japan in order to determine how people interact with technology, brands and each other. The study revealed four distinct personalities of connected consumers: Efficiency Experts who use email and social media to simplify their lives, Social Butterflies who rely on social media, IM and mobile phones to call, text and tag their friends instantly, Content Kings whose principal motivation is to consume digital content including movies, games, music and news, and Connected Maestros who integrate news, entertainment and …

Amazon revealed in the press launch of its new Kindle Fire tablets that for the first time the devices' operating system will have in integrated email application. The app will integrate with Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo!. Pricing for the new tablets will begin at $159 for the original Kindle Fire with the upgraded operating system, $199 for the 7-inch version, and $299 for an 8.9-inch HD version. These price points and the integrated email app will make the Kindle Fire an important mobile platform for email marketers. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos indicated in the press release that the original Kindle …

In the wake of Google's announcement that it intends to shutter the Postini service and fold many of its features into Google apps, numerous rivals have introduced offers and streamlined migration paths for luring Postini customers to their own cloud-based email security systems. 

Ray Tomlinson didn't invent email, but as the engineer working on ARPANET in 1971 who sent the first electronic message from one computer to another he is commonly considered the man who implemented email. Early on he watched it grow as a replacement for telephone calls because "you didn't have to have someone there to receive the call." He predicts future applications will convert messages in other channels into email: "so you send an IM to somebody, and if they don’t respond it turns into an email-like thing without any intervention on your part." 

In another article covering email's 30th birthday, AllThingsD looks specifically at how email is "the connective tissue of the transactional and social web." Want to sign up for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram? You need an email account. Buying something online? You need email for that as well. And as the social networks themselves are showing with the network digests appearing in members' inboxes every day, email is the channel to turn to for driving deeper engagement and more frequent contact.

Beginning September 1 2012, all court filings in Florida (pleadings and other filings) must be made by email, instead of hand-delivered or faxed to the court. The new requirement also allows for electronic signatures of some documents.

INBOX PAUSE, a new Gmail extension developed by Baydin, Inc (developers of Boomerang for Gmail), allows subscribers to temporarily prevent incoming messages from appearing in their inboxes, holding them in a queue until they are later released. Users also have the option of automatically notifying senders that the message has been paused by the recipient (functioning similarly to out-of-office reply).  Currently INBOX PAUSE is only available for Chrome. 

The upside of an opted-in SMS list is that 95-97% of subscribers will read your message within 5 minutes of sending. The downside is that most brands have not figured out a content strategy for SMS compelling enough to gain access to their customers' phones. One exception is shoe retailer DSW, who uses a "last chance" SMS alert for subscribers who have not yet taken advantage of a once-a-year discount on their birthdays.