Under the GDPR, individuals can request personal data that they have given to an organisation and then pass that to another organisation or keep it for themselves. Everyone recognised the potential benefits for consumers in the energy sector, who would be able to use their personal data to get a better deal from a competitor energy supplier.

Based on one email provider's analysis of billions of email campaigns, it found that emails sent on Thursdays generally receive the highest amount of opens, followed closely by those sent on a Tuesday. With the exception of campaigns promoting hobby and recreational content, its data indicates that weekends are the least ideal time to send an email marketing campaign.

So much for Microsoft's court win providing a neat and tidy defence against law enforcement requests for foreign data. As part of an FBI fraud investigation, a Philadelphia judge has ordered Google to obey search warrants for emails stored on servers outside the US. The court ruled that transferring the messages to the US didn't count as seizing foreign information.

Video is taking over. Reports state that 74% of Internet traffic in 2017 will be video driven. Videos in an email campaign lead to 200-300% higher click-through-rates. Audiences want something that stands out, pulls them in, and connects them -- video and interactive content will help your marketing efforts stand above the rest.

Research has shown the most effective email sign-off is "thanks in advance." For the study, Boomerang looked at closings in over 350,000 email threads from mailing list archives in which they wrote, in a blog post, many emails involved "people asking for help or advice, hoping for a reply."

One of the major things my team learned from crowdfunding emails was that people respond to strong and direct language. If your email is asking for support, be specific about what you're asking for. One of my favourite features in newsletters and business emails is a button with clear text like: donate now, read now, or buy now.

Smartphones are gradually taking over as the most used device for checking emails. Statistics show that over 65% of users first read emails on their mobile devices. Marketers are already taking heed of this trend and refashioning their brand newsletters to fit the need. This means that emails will get shorter and more precise.

Marketers were understandably concerned in 2013 when Google announced a new tabs feature for Gmail. The new tabs broke up the primary inbox into social, promotional, and even an update tab (if users enabled it), and the thinking was that this segmentation would spur declines in read rates and click-throughs. This didn't turn out to be the case.

Companies selling marketing lists are breaking the law if people haven't been told how their information will be used. That's the warning from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as it fines a Birmingham company GBP20,000 for unlawfully trading personal information.

Standard 'batch and blast' emails are now just a nuisance to the customer. Sending these will surely hinder your email marketing, as it will be viewed as showing that you don't care about your customer or the experience that you are trying to offer them. Today, marketers can go further and really push the boundaries.