• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 9, 2009

PARK CITY, Utah -- On a panel Wednesday about "Trends for Email Marketers" next year, Susan Tull -- vice president of marketing at BlueHornet -- said her company is working with marketers to try and help them gain more control of the share-to-social function in emails.

One goal is to "really optimize that share-to-social work flow, so marketers will be able to control the content that is actually being shared," the executive at the email service provider said at MediaPost's Email Insider Summit. Some of that "control" involves content on landing pages.

American Automobile Association email marketing director Lara Conn said the travel company is starting to use share-to-social functions in email -- and local AAA clubs are embracing it, albeit slowly. The option is "in its infancy, we are seeing it is being used ... and (we're) anticipating that to grow."

REI has run a social campaign propelled by email alerts, where people are tipped off to a contest to design a new snowboard. People can then vote on the submitted designs and a winner will be manufactured. REI noted it has been "amazed" by the quality of the designs.

Gretchen Scheiman, a partner at OgilvyOne, mentioned hurdles involving automation in email, noting that a link with creative can be a trouble spot.

BlueHornet's Tull said that with respect to automation, no new tools are expected in 2010, and the challenge is getting marketers to use what's already out there.

At AAA, a Canadian club has a program with vehicle registrations, where emails will be automatically sent to people to remind them when a registration is about to expire.

At Netflix, a system is set up to send emails immediately to someone who cancels a subscription, letting people know their account will be inactive for several months. Automated reminders are sent then to try and convince them to re-up.

Separately, Andrew Kordek, manager of optimization at Groupon, touted a program initiated by the e-commerce company that was an active subject on Twitter. The function took place when people opted to unsubscribe to emails.

When clicking that option, a video would come up with Groupon email executive "Derek" saying the company is sorry you're leaving. It then asks if the un-subscriber wants to "punish" "Derek" and continue to drop the subscription.

"An engagement to disengage" is how Kordek described it.