More than 80% of all delivery issues arise because of a problem with your sending reputation. Your sending reputation is based upon your sending patterns and volumes, mailing infrastructure, list hygiene (spam traps and unknown users), and subscriber complaints. Today, let's look at how we can resolve the reputation issues and get our email back to the inbox, based on the data we gathered.

Email is the most valuable, flexible and successful of all marketing channels. But its success goes well beyond its ability to drive conversions and revenue for companies. Finding that sweet spot remains a challenge for many email marketers, but some have been able to bring out what I called in my previous column email's "inner Lady Gaga:" an enhanced role that goes beyond the conventional image of being inexpensive and "your father's communication channel." Following are a few examples from some marketers that exemplify this approach:

Some things take longer than others to catch on. Take the gorgeous George Clooney, who despite making his TV debut in 1978, did not gain fame until he became Dr. Doug Ross on "ER" in 1994. And while the first email was sent in the 1960's, it was not until 1971 when Ray Tomlinson and team provided the standard network for email transmission. Not to mention the long 21-year delay before network service providers like America Online and Delphi enabled the wide scale global adoption of email in 1993. That's a whole lot of waiting (and several years of faxing!). …

Today parents sending kids off to college are more likely to worry about their job prospects after graduation than whether they'll get along with roommates or do laundry. One beacon of hope for new graduates is the email marketing industry. According to Forrester Research, the industry is expected to grow to $2 billion by the year 2014, the year the newest crop of college freshmen graduate. I am an accountant and often wonder how I ended up launching an email service provider. This got me thinking: What kind of undergraduate degree would produce a great email marketer? While a degree …

Seems strange to use the word "new and social" in the same sentence. Kind of like Coke and soda, they mean the same in my world. In my opinion, there will soon be a collision of sorts with how this business of customer relationship marketing and social media/marketing serve a customer. Social networking in its basic form is core to our basic foundation of community: how we construct our communities at work/home and core to some of our most primary needs as humans.

If you've never experienced a round of "Would You Rather..." at a party, bar or local friendly gathering, then here's your chance. While the questions won't be as fun as "Would you rather be eaten by a shark or starve to death in the desert?" or as real-life as "Would you rather your kids have strep throat or pinkeye?" (which is the game I am playing right now), this will still be a game of choosing between the lesser of two evils. So without further ado, welcome to "Would You Rather Your Email..."

n April, I wrote an article titled "Three Ways Email Marketing is Like a Newborn Baby." Three weeks before that article was published, my wife and I had our first baby. Two weeks ago our little baby girl turned six months old. I thought it was only appropriate to write a follow-up. Here's how email marketing is like a six-month-old baby:

While our major focus (and primary object of devotion) is, of course, email, it always pays to seek creative inspiration in other forms of design and marketing. With this idea in mind, we took to the streets (and to the nets) in search of fresh thinking. Here's what we found:

Almost everything I read about email marketing here in MediaPost and the other trades, as well as all the case studies and panel discussions at the email conferences, and also the white papers penned by the email marketing companies, are about the same thing: how to make email easier, and improve its ROI. But we've got it all wrong. In order to be more successful, we actually have to decrease the ROI of email.

How is email marketing like Madonna? Both are headliners, with staying power and strong track records. Both make millions and reinvent themselves constantly to adapt to changing tastes. But they also have to compete for the spotlight with brash newcomers. Lady Gaga borrows from Madonna's repertoire. Similarly, social media, "apps" and mobile marketing are the shiny new toys that make email marketing look stodgy and "so Web 1.0." We have to find and communicate email's inner Lady Gaga -- the eye-popping, sexy qualities that keep email marketing a robust headliner year after year.