The military term "Broken Arrow" defines the point when military calls in all available aircraft to a friendly position that has been overrun by the foe, creating a high probability of "Blue-on-Blue". I think we may have hit that position over the past week with the recent increase in phishing attacks driven by the breach of security at a major ESP.

>What's more valuable, an email address in your database or a Facebook "Like?" Is it better to excel at email marketing or social-media marketing? Pick one: email or social media? Which would you rather have: a click on an email link or a Facebook Like? Maybe people offer these two extreme positions just to get conversations started, but for me, there is no "either-or" about email and social. You can and should include both of the channels as part of your digital marketing and communications strategy.

There is a lot we can learn from the novelist's craft when approaching our own, not the least of which is to think of email as a craft, and not some form of e-manual labor. If we think like writers instead of marketers, we may enjoy a wider audience for our work. Who knows? We may even find ourselves with a bestseller on our hands. So dust off your Hermes 3000, crack your knuckles, and let's create a real page-turner:

As many of you know, I often use my average, everyday life as inspiration for my continued and ongoing muses about the email space, and today is no different. My five-year-old daughter is participating in Spirit Week at school; we've got Pajama Day and Beach Day under our belts, and we're faced with tackling '80s Day today. Last night we spent a good amount of time online looking at pictures for inspiration, which concluded with my daughter looking at me, nose crinkled, saying, "um, mom, is it ok if I just go to school as 'me' tomorrow?" In the end …

The answer to this question depends on how literally you define the word "conversation Is donating money to the Red Cross a conversation? Is registering to vote? Is moving from one state to another? To me, all of these actions have the potential to be part of a conversation. However, to achieve a conversation someone has to (1) be listening and (2) respond in a way that demonstrates they were listening. The same is true with email. Whether a subscriber opens an email, what they click on, if they unsubscribe -- all these actions are part of a conversation -- …

In order to have a successful email program today -- but more importantly, in the years ahead -- marketers need to understand how much the world in which email messages are created, distributed and read is changing. These changes won't make email any less powerful and relevant. In fact, one of email's great attributes is its flexibility, its ability to evolve as the communications world evolves. I believe, however, these changes are bringing email to a critical stage as a marketing and communications vehicle, where a converging set of trends and realities will force email to deliver on its promise …

The winds kicked up out of the south last week, bringing spring temperatures to most of the United States. The earth started its annual rebirth as flowers started peeking through the ground and people once again ventured outside. Marketing seems to be going through a rebirth of its own, and the season is called mobile. The mobile season has marketers donning bonnets of marketing ideas and gathering baskets of cell phone numbers.

Email is very well known as a direct-response tool, and there is plenty of free advice available to help sellers maximize their results and measure them effectively. But what about tips for editorial emails designed with content instead of sales as the primary driver? Here are the top five things you should do to get the best results from your email content:

Being from Chicago, it is almost impossible to open the business section of the newspaper without reading something about Groupon. Almost singlehandedly, the brand has elevated the mass of technology entrepreneurs in this city towards the euphoric heights of Silicon Valley. Now, some may say I am just a bitter, 12-year email marketing veteran, living in Chicago and yet somehow missing out on the opportunity to be part of the Groupon gravy train. However, I think it is time we all stepped back and asked ourselves about the future of the group buying and flash sales trend and what it …

Amazon Simple Email Service (universally known as SES) is the new email server platform recently announced by Amazon. It's an obvious (and really smart) direction for Amazon to go. There has been a lot of excitement about Amazon SES among our client base -- and in certain dark corners where email technologists like to hang out. So how important is this? After a bunch of conversations with my colleagues at Return Path, our investors and some super-smart email technologists, here's my take: