Marketers know their audience and products better than anyone, and it should go without saying that what works for one company may not work for another. Here are five questions to consider before taking the plunge with any new email marketing technology.

Once upon a time, the blog was considered to be THE cutting-edge arena for companies to dish out tips, trends, product launches, opinions, commentary, and more in a personal, approachable way. While the blog has taken a backseat to some of the newer kids on the Web block, there are still a lot of companies creating a daily dose of fresh content and posting it to their blogs. Where they fall short is in their support of their own efforts. They're still investing internal resources to post information, but they're not consistent in promoting the blogs to their email subscribers. …

I believe I can say it was a successful Advertising Week in New York. OMMA (a MediaPost event) and MIXX both had nice turnouts. I found the popularity of social to be a little alarming. Although we've seen more and more interest in social marketing, social media, and social influence, it seemed that the most filled-up sessions had a "social" stamp on them.

I agree with my industry colleague Chad White, who predicted in this space that marketer adoption of email social sharing -- referred to as "share-to-social" or "share with your network" -- will overtake "forward to a friend" usage, perhaps even as early as two years from now.

Maintaining strong open and click-through rates is the foundation of effective campaigns. They also play an increasingly important role in delivery, as ISPs use them to measure a message's relevance. So if you fall off your game, you don't just feel it in your current campaign; softer delivery on your next campaigns could also result. Think about how other touch points with your subscribers can be better leveraged to increase how relevant your emails are, and ultimately lift your open and click-through rates.

Preheader text is HTML text that appears before or sometimes within the header of an email. It's important and growing in popularity because of the prevalence of image blocking by email subscribers and the increasing use of image-unfriendly mobile devices to view email. Those two trends make preheader text vital as both a promotional and functional tactic.

We often think about email and eCRM as "end of the funnel" activities. It makes sense on the surface; you would assume you have some established relationship with the consumer or business before you send them an email -- an opt-in, at minimum. But the consumer experience is not linear. In fact, the front- and back-of-the-funnel experiences are often interchangeable. Lifecycle marketing in its simplest form is predicated on this linear view, but in reality, a lifecycle is a series of peak and valleys of brand involvement.

Several weeks ago I wrote about newly emerging metrics all email marketers should be considering when looking at integrating social media into their programs. Since then I have had the opportunity to help a number of clients socialize their email campaigns to increase reach and conversions. Today, I would like to share the results that one of these clients has realized.

When email started to gain widespread adoption 15 years ago, the idea of delivering account statements or status updates via email seemed absurd to the majority of consumers. In the mid-1990s, email was not yet recognized as an appropriate channel for "official," or formal, communication. Direct mail was. Sure, some people wrote back and forth about business using email, but it was primarily a tool for interpersonal, or informal, communication. I believe this distinction allows direct marketers to put the current communication landscape into proper context.

Back in the day, product descriptions written by a copywriter offered up all the info customers seemed to need. But these days, your potential customers are interested in hearing what other people -- you know, the ones who aren't on your payroll -- are saying about your products. By featuring these reviews in your emails, you're adding a layer of authenticity that's priceless.