Buying your products? That might be seemingly working. But emails? Not so much.  Spencer Kollas, director of global deliverability of Experian CheetahMail, during the Email Insider Summit in Park City, said clients need to look closer.    Kollas points to some clients who say …

At the MediaPost Email Insider Summit, Experian CheetahMail's Spencer Kollas echoed thoughts by Innovyx's Derek Harding that the email industry could use much better metrics on engagement beyond open rates and click-throughs.

Nice retort from Acxiom's David Baker at the MediaPost Email Insider Summit. As Palms Casino Resort marketer Erin Levzow spoke about targeting emails, she said for Valentine's Day she'll send different ones to divorced single men and divorced single women and single men and married men and married women.

At the MediaPost Email Insider Summit on Tuesday, the question arose why has Big Data been so big this year -- getting lots of press coverage. Rapleaf CEO Phil Davis said it played a role in the election, it's been used to predict weather patterns impacting global warming and in homeland security.

Reality check: technology is not a replacement for a great email marketig strategy. Technology providers discussed what drives innovation in personalization of email messaging.

At the MediaPost Email Insider Summit, Dan Quintero, founder of AdStack, said data shows between 40%-60% of all emails sent is opened on a mobile device -- but 60% of individuals will click out if the email is not mobile friendly.

The start-up PhilterIt gathers all email from a particular marketer in Gmail, stores it and allows a person to access it by clicking on a brand icon.

Email marketing has been tired, says Dan Quintero, founder, director of business development, AdStack, at the Email Insider Summit in Park City, Utah. That's because it didn't have the zip of newer technology of other digital marketing -- like social and search. But things are getting better, including filtering through all the big data and better segmentation. Robbie Allen, founder and chief executive officer for Automated Insights, says the obvious goal: "Writing an email for one person. The more personalized content will set you apart....[but] it's still an immature space."

Faisal Chughtai, an investment banker at JP Morgan Chase, who focuses on Internet and digital media and has worked with clients such as Amazon, Facebook and LinkedIn, said IP and IT are overhauling every organization in every sector and affecting every dollar within the $65 trillion in global GDP.

No question: Email marketing has changed how political campaigns are funded. One of the coolest things that keynote speaker Toby Fallsgraff shared is around the challenges of using email marketing to do the hard work of a campaign: Defining a competitor, and establishing a candidate position. Email marketing done well, and with high frequency, can actually shape the conversation, not just reflect the brand. "We created a way for ordinary Americans to be involved and actually move the needle on the campaign success," Toby said.