We talk a lot about how email is the one marketing medium that comes closest to a one-to-one conversation with our customers/subscribers, but we spend more time making sure readers see the message we want them to see and not enough designing the email so that it's just as easy to navigate.

Here's some impressive stats: Last week's email marketing report released by Shop.org shows email is delivering sales at a cost of $7 per order -- compared to $71.89 for banner ads, $26.75 for paid search, and $17.47 for affiliate programs. Ka-pow.

A stats novice -- "I've never paid much attention to any of my statistics" -- realizes it's time she learned. She asks the Email Diva for help. Which metrics should she focus on?

We think we live in a world of accountability - a world where passion and commitment supersede self-promotion. Yet I read so many articles in the email space that talk about symptoms, not solutions; and offer explanations, not resolve for improvement. Few of these even make the connection to a complete marketing story. I wrote a series of articles in 2005 about telling an ROI story and how to position it so it speaks to more than an email database and return on investment Not many are looking past the email channel today...

Studies have shown that welcome emails have significantly higher open rates than regular emails, and are key to setting expectations and communicating the brand. So it's surprising that only 72% of major retailers send out welcome emails.

Last week I reported on the size of the market and wondered out loud how much revenue is generated by the $3 billion being spent on email advertising and services. The answer was supplied by Sean O'Neal at Datran Media, who pointed out that the DMA itself projects that marketers will spend around $500 million and generate over $29.9 billion in revenue as a result of acquisition email in 2007, an increase of over 18% from 2006. So, why isn't that bit of news getting more play?

Dear Email Diva: I keep receiving (and declining) requests to opt-in for email from a company where I'm a loyal customer. Why don't they get the hint?

In a 2006 study by Yahoo and OMD called the "Long and Winding Road: The Route to the Cash Register," Yahoo identified four distinct purchasing paths people take. The study incorporated 4,301 online surveys and 13 in-depth and in-home ethnographics. Research on broadband users was focused on several categories: autos, finance, tech, Retail Goods, and Consumer Packaged goods. Pete Lerma at Clickhere wrote a nice article about this a few months ago, as did David Verklin and Bernice Kanner in their book, "Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here".

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This question haunts me when I hear marketers talk about their email programs. They seem to accept the loss of one in five emails as inevitable and out of their control, thanks to spam filters, customers who mistype their addresses or file spam complaints, invisible and inexplicable quirks in the system and other reasons. One in five doesn't sound too bad -- until you start looking at real numbers. If you send 100,000 messages, you've lost 20,000. Where else in your company would such a loss rate be tolerated? In fact, everyone else most likely has to meet a strict …