In "The Sensual Shopper," Paco Underhill argues that "...virtually all unplanned purchases -- and many planned ones, too -- come as a result of the shopper seeing, touching, smelling or tasting something that promises pleasure, if not total fulfillment." For email marketers, Underhill's conclusions at first seem mildly disheartening. Very few products and services can actually be sensually experienced online. Yet through creative use of imagery, video, sound clips and copy, email marketers can provide opportunities for subscribers to identify sensually with their products via email.

I'm a multi-personality email persona -- I have so many email addresses that I manage them in completely separate ways. I thought this week it would be fun to take a look at my inbox from one of my oldest email accounts and pick my Fab 5. This account celebrates its 17-year anniversary this year. In this inbox live an amazing track record of opt-ins and permissions that are in many cases outdated. I still get email from marketers that include my address from my very first home in Texas (over 15 years ago). Clue to marketers: Don't use personalization …

Smart businesses keep marketing in down economies. Many analysts are already reporting that dollars are shifting to the highly efficient channels like email, still the highest ROI channel and earning $45+ ROI for every dollar invested, according to the DMA (2008).

One of email's strengths is how well it continues to adapt to all the shifts and changes that constantly reshape the marketing landscape. However, those adaptations have implications that affect the way you use email to market today and in the near future. While as many as a dozen trends might affect email marketing today, I find myself discussing the following six key trends most often in my travels and speeches....

I can't help but feel queasy about how current economic conditions are going to affect my business and the email marketing industry as a whole. Not understanding the full ramifications of sub-prime derivatives, in January I predicted that a recession would be good for email marketing as companies increase their investment in lower cost marketing mediums with a strong ROI. Even with frozen credit markets and a shrinking GDP I'm confidently standing by my prediction especially since the volume of my email subscriptions has spiked exponentially over the past couple of months.

In these tough economic times, with consumer spending dropping and marketers' budgets being cut, it's more important than ever to properly position the importance and effectiveness of the email channel within your organization's overall marketing efforts. Unfortunately, many marketers are still guilty of basing overall email marketing success on simplistic notions related to campaign response rates and the low cost of the channel. While these types of metrics are important, what most marketers still lack are high level, comprehensive success measures and a comprehensive plan for more thoroughly integrating email into the marketing efforts of the organization.