The Email Experience Council's new report, "The Global Email Marketing Compliance Guide," is a valuable resource to understand email regulations in 77 countries. But, more strategically, it can form the basis of a global framework for ensuring compliance throughout the world and minimizing your legal risks.

A long-time colleague posted a question to an email marketing list a few weeks ago: "Which email metrics do you wish existed in email marketing benchmark reports that don't exist today?" The question got me thinking about the state of email measurement and the kinds of metrics that should be available but aren't yet in common use. Here is my short list:

Is there such a thing as the perfect email? Some might say it's the thank-you note, since it conveys gratitude and some level of sincerity, and is usually timed to some exchange/service. Others might say it's humor, but the days of funny emails have somewhat been swallowed by Facebook posting and Youtube, where interactivity is paramount.

Because marketing today is harder than it has ever been, every now and then I love to dedicate a piece to all the email marketers out there working tirelessly to drive revenue for their organizations. Here are some of the skills you've probably proven to master, showing how you've earned your place as a digital success story.

We're beginning to see some sophisticated uses of machine learning to address email marketing problems. Marketing clouds and email service providers (ESPs) have released some interesting and useful features. Still, there are still many opportunities for new capabilities that could help email marketers drive more from their current email marketing investment. I've compiled a list of things that clients frequently ask about ("Can your firm do this for me?") that don't exist in the market yet (as far as I know).

Marketers have to comply with email and data regulations that vary widely from one country to the next. What's legal in the United States, for example, won't pass muster with Canada and many nations in the European Union. The DMA's Email Experience Council recently published "The Global Email Marketing Compliance Guide" to document global email and data regulations in a single source. Among the guide's 32 categories are answers to many questions that marketers ask most often. I've excerpted and simplified some below and will discuss others in a future Email Insider column.

Some writers look at the glass half-empty and say that there is still contention at the top ranks between CTOs and CMOs. Some have said that the tensions between the two functions (CMO/CTO) just simply must exist, and it's a lot better now than it was a decade ago. Let me offer a simple perspective on the dynamic between the two roles, as it relates to our world of data-driven marketing and omnichannel.

Since the beginning of the digital age, email and other digital marketers have been focused on getting a click to drive the user to the website. From there, the website does the work of converting a customer. But that traditional focus is about to change. Thanks to the digital money revolution and products like ApplePay, Samsung Pay, Bitcoin, and traditional payment gateways, consumers are gaining the ability to transact or convert money anywhere and anytime.