The Web Marketing Association opened the call for entries in its Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards today. The awards accept entries from 86 industries across a range of categories, including Best Email Advertising Campaign. Advertisers, agencies or technology vendors can submit their best work at www.IACward.org before the deadline of January 31, 2013. Judging will take place in February and winners will be notified in mid-March, by email. 

Many companies work hard to generate leads through PPC, SEO and other channels, but the reality is that conversion is rarely a quick event, with nearly three quarters of leads not yet sales ready when they come in. Email, and drip nurturing in particular, helps develop leads into purchases, making investments in SEO and PPC pay off more frequently. Read the full article on Search Engine Watch.

"Cloud-native" email and messaging service provider Message Bus lauched its Global Delivery Network today, designed to enable enterprise companies, email service providers and developers to send large amounts of communications to their audience, while also ensuring that the trust between sender and recipient is maintained. The company claims that the service is the first to be 100% compliant with the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) standard.

It wasn't exactly a "Dewey Defeats Truman" moment, but Spirit Airlines subscribers who received an email with the subject line "Romney Wins!" on Tuesday morning let them have it on Twitter all the same. Inside the email continued, "And So Do Obama and You With These Incredibly Low Fares" though many subscribers did not get far enough into the email to get the joke. Spirit Airlines used the election theme in emails previously with subject lines like "Binders Full of Airfare Sales". 

Apple appears to have completed the transition from MobileMe to iCloud, alerting MobileMe subscribers that they now have an iCloud.com address with the same username reserved. Users can select from a .iCloud.com, me.com or mac.com address, though messages to their usernames at all three domains will be delivered. 

Before giving his acceptance speech to his crowd of supporters in Chicago and millions more citizens watching on television, President Obama first sent an email to his campaign's house list thanking them for their support. Using the subject line "How this happened" the email acknowledged that email subscribers were receiving the offical message following the re-election: "I’m about to go speak to the crowd here in Chicago, but I wanted to thank you first."

The votes are in on the decision by New Jersey officials to allow voting by email to displaced victims of Hurricane Sandy. Unfortunately the votes that matter - those cast by the residents themselves - are not yet in, promoting the Essex County Clerk caught in the middle of the firestorm to call the decision "an unprecedented disaster." The county email systems pressed into urgent system were wholly unprepared for the volume, unable to handle to thousands of requests and large file sizes of attachments or even send confirmation emails. As a result, voters were left frustrated and disenfranchised, and …

For all of the complaints about bursting inboxes and the incessant stream of emails, there are still many people who remain unruffled. A Seattle technology guru commented on the topic of inbox management, "If someone emails me, I have to read/process it because they chose to send it? Nah." Another popular sentiment was voiced by a column commenter, "Thing is, if it’s important enough, someone who actually knows me will call." As alluring as Inbox Zero may be, many people are finding that it is simply not worth the trouble, and that ignoring email is easier than managing it. 

Integrated Marketing Services Provider HubSpot has closed a $35 million mezzanine round of funding, and has its eye on the public markets. The company, founded by former VC Brian Halligan, will spend the money on acquisitions and to fuel growth in Europe. 

A survey by Experian Marketing Services asked marketers to rank the most successful tactics used during the 2011 holiday season, and also to indicate which tactics and channels they intended to invest in for 2012. Email ranked highest in 2011 performance, with 54% citing it as Extremely or Very Successful. Paid Search followed at 49%, with Online Display Ads next at 35%. Email also topped the list for 2012 investments, with 96% of marketers planning to invest in email for this holiday season. Facebook and Videos round out the top three. The biggest mover on the list was Pinterest, which …