SMS messaging is growing in popularity - both with marketers and consumers. To make the most of it, pay attention to timing and your call-to-action, and put a premium on targeting for relevance and tight, pithy copy. 

The email marketing benchmarks of 17% open rates and 3% click-throughs, recently published by eMarketer, are "spot on" according to Listrak CEO Ross Kramer. Speaking at the Marketing Boot Camp in advance of the Shop.org Annual Summit, Kramer went on to say that retailers should aim for 20% - 30% of revenues to be attributable to email.

A growing number of companies is trying to rebuild the boundaries between work and home by urging their employees to stop checking email once they leave work, or at least to refrain from replying if they feel compelled to continue scanning the inbox. While the added productivity in an economic downturn is appreciated, some companies now have the foresight to try and ward off employee burnout. 

TechCrunch has identified the eight vendors working with Facebook on custom audience (email address) targeting. The companies are AdParlor, Alchemy Social, Brighter Option, GraphEffect, Kenshoo, Nanigans, Social Moov, and Optimal. 

The Relevancy Group has released some additional data from a recent consumer behavior survey, finding that each day 97% check a personal email account while 59% update their Facebook status. 33% of consumers report having shared something from a brand on either Facebook or Twitter.

A study published recently in Psychology Today points at the brain chemical Dopamine as the reason people compulsively check their inboxes. To curb this behavior, the researcher suggests turning off notifications.

A/B testing is one of the easiest and most productive ways to identify the email tactics that work best for your brand. Tests for Layout and Design, Timing and Frequency, Dynamic Content, Call-to-Action, Sender and Copy can all fine-tune an email program.

With the rise in importance of engagement metrics as a deliverability measure, email programs need to focus on subscribier quality over quantity. One way to achieve this is to add a little friction into the signup process to pre-qualify new subscribers and help ensure they are more engaged with the brand.

An update to the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act goes up for discussion before a Senate committee today. The original version of the bill does little to protect the privacy of private email messages, and the new version is proposed to give email some of the same personal safeguards as physical mail. 

A new study by RSR Research reveals that while retailers favor social media and mobile for customer growth, they turn to email for insight on customer demographics and behavior. The study also found that activities around brand building and driving sales receive significantly more resources than customer engagement and loyalty.