The wearable tech firm Jawbone has been accused of being insensitive and distressing to people whose fathers have died. The U.S. company sent out an email to thousands of recipients with the subject line: "Re: Your Dad". The header was intended to be an attention-grabbing way to promote its products as Father's Day gifts. But it sparked criticism from dozens of recipients on social media.

Email marketing provider MailChimp is out with a new Product Recommendations offering, which it says is the only such native feature available on a platform oriented toward small to medium-sized businesses (SMB). Product recommendations are common in ecommerce sites, including giants like Amazon or Netflix. They are also increasingly common in email platforms.

A police force has been fined after an email, containing information that could be used to identify eight sex offenders, was sent to a member of the public in error. An ICO investigation found that Dyfed-Powys Police did not have the right measures in place to keep personal information secure, and has now fined the force GBP150,000.

When it comes to email marketing, the key is to find the sweet spot between winning a customer and losing one. Some email marketing campaigns manage to successfully keep customers engaged and reduce "churn rate," whereas others only inhibit growth and are perceived by consumers to be an annoyance.

Ever wondered about the impact of a specific colour included in your email marketing, or the music playing in the background of your brick-and-mortar store? Here's why it's all-important in building a connection with your consumers.

A mother has slammed an email from high street shoe brand Office reminding its customers to shave their legs. Mumsnet user Katy, who is on the mailing list, said she would no longer be shopping at the retailer after receiving the "sexist" email advertising its summer collection. The subject line was "Show a little leg," while the tagline below read: "Just don't forget to shave them."

Halfords has embarked on a project to improve its understanding of its customers. It introduced e-receipts in January and has since collected more than 1 million email addresses, meaning it can now match 15% of retail sales to customers, up from 3% in November. For the first time, Halfords can personalise its marketing, with the aim to have a full customer view by the end of the year.

A B2B technology report from Informatica revealed that 25% of marketers don't know their lead conversion rates, largely because they don't have the right CRM strategy, which limits sales growth and work efficiency. If a CRM does not provide immediate value and is overly complex to implement and maintain, it will fail to do what it was designed to do: increase sales.

Hiri is the latest startup trying to fix email. Specifically, the Dublin-based company is targeting workplace email with an array of features that aim to nudge users to change their email behaviour for the better. For it isn't email that is necessarily broken, but the way we all use and abuse it. Hiri's headline feature is the ability for recipients to rate each email they receive.

Microsoft wants to turn your Android Wear watch into a smart email companion. An update to the Outlook app for Android creates several watch face choices to transform your smartwatch into a personal organiser tool with a few splashes of colour. The new watch face gives you an overview of your schedule and includes a list of who has sent you a new message.