IoT enables instantaneous communication between machines and is all set to unfurl a new revolution for email marketers. Apart from a physical object and the Internet, Internet of Things comprises an "intelligent" computer processor (controller) that works through sensors in the real world, and generates output with the help of actuators.

The ICO's Good Practice department conducted a survey at the end of last year to find out more about information governance practices in local government. The overarching conclusion from analysis of the survey results was that, although there is good practice out there, with GDPR coming in May 2018, many councils have work to do.

The document places strong emphasis on using grounds other than consent for direct marketing. The possibility of Legitimate Interest is mentioned several times, yet there is no guidance on how to judge whether this is appropriate, making it impossible to justify legitimate interest for third-party data use.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of UK Internet users ages 18 and older surveyed by Zeta Global in January 2017 received information from retail brands via email over the past year. That gave email a response rate far higher than any other channel. The remaining communication methods trailed email by wide margins, and were a mix of traditional and digital channels.

If you are helpful, users will begin to trust and enjoy hearing from you. Always try to be as helpful as possible each time you send a message to a subscriber. Either include something useful for your target audience in the email text or point readers to another resource on the Web -- perhaps something new on your blog -- that will help them succeed.

There are many reasons why people abandon carts, but you can use email to recoup some of these sales. Radley London recovered 7.9% of lost sales simply by sending cart abandonment emails. Boot Barn generated a 12% lift in recaptured revenue by using email to remarket to those who had cart abandonment.

The type of incentive or offer that retailers should consider including in emails depends on their business goal, according to a recent study by Yes Lifecycle Marketing. For those hoping to get their messages opened, less overt sales messages with no specific offer (open rate of 15.6%) or loyalty incentives (14.6%) had the highest open rates.

Internet users of all ages in Germany are surprisingly similar in the ways they interact with retailers via email. An August 2016 survey from United Internet Media investigated the way digital and in-store buyers use email at all phases of the customer journey, both before and after purchasing. The study, published this month, looks at how age and gender influence email behaviours.

Good news: marketers have definitely understood the importance of mobile in their campaigns. Bad news: they're not confident about getting the most out of it. That was the verdict from a study issued by the Mobile Marketing Association and RadiumOne. Six in 10 (61%) said they were not fully confident in their ability to find new profitable customers on mobile.

When selecting an ESP, the choices are a single-point provider of email solutions or a partner that offers several solutions that are often rolled up into a giant marketing automation platform. You should be leery of these extended-solution families. In an SAP study of B2B buyers, 52% said the biggest risk of getting a purchase wrong is wasting company money.