As 2011 draws to a close, email marketers should already be planning their strategies for the 2012. While 2011 saw the establishment of new technologies as mainstream, 2012 will enable us to deepen our engagement with these technologies, thereby catering more effectively to an ever more mobile and connected audience. Without further ado, let’s dive into the top email strategies for the new year.

• Deeper Customer Engagement

By engagement, I mean two-way conversation. Email marketers must focus more stringently on involving subscribers in dialogue, speaking with them, rather than at them.

• Relevant Content

List segmentation will take top priority in 2012 as subscribers expect email messages to increasingly reflect their personal preferences and needs. Creating targeted lists based on subscriber behavior such as email clicks, website browsing, and previous purchases will enable businesses to send content that remains high on the subscriber’s priority list.

• Mobile Optimization

As people increasingly use mobile devices to check email, businesses will need to create messages that acknowledge the unique aspects of mobile design. Single columns, larger fonts and buttons, and increased space between clickable elements all make emails easier for mobile users to navigate.

• Automated Campaigns

While many businesses already use triggered responses for email receipts and welcome letters, automation will gain a whole new level of sophistication in 2012. Increase customer engagement with your brand by using automation for cross sell and up sell offers, birthday/anniversary greetings, purchase recommendations, and more. By utilizing multiple triggers for your automation campaign, you can keep loyal subscribers engaged on a consistent basis.

• Social Media Integration

No longer will email and Facebook operate in parallel universes. Social sharing will become an intrinsic part of email marketing strategies in 2012 as businesses seek to create multi-channel communication. Enabling subscribers to share message content via social media icons will increase the likelihood of your message reaching an ever broader audience of targeted prospects.

• Email Marketing Becomes More Important, Not Less

Ultimately, despite speculations that email is dead, email marketing will gain greater importance in 2012 than ever before. Email messages will be more personal and relevant based on subscriber data, making them an integral part of a multi-pronged approach to overall customer engagement.

eConnect Email remains on the cutting edge of email marketing technology and stands ready to help you incorporate these vital elements into your strategy. By starting out on the front edge of evolving email technology, you’ll be ready for whatever new developments 2012 brings your way.

Believe it or not, there were some techie types (otherwise known as nerds) who thought that Twitter, Facebook, etc. would completely eradicate the need for and use of email.  Well, here we are in 2011 and email isn’t going anywhere, at least not in the foreseeable future.  The smart ones have figured out how to incorporate email marketing with the social media outlets.

One example is Biz Stone, who launched his first edition of the new Twitter Email Newsletter.  Yes, he could have done the Twitter thing with it, but it is one smart guy who realizes that information flows through various channels, and people tend to receive information in a variety of those channels.  Also, tweeting a newsletter in blocks of 140 characters at a time is a little less than efficient.

The big thing holding all the social media together, according to some, is—you guessed it—email.  Where do updates and recaps of your day in the social media appear?  Your inbox.  One such example is Nutshell Mail , where you can sign up for these types of updates to hit your inbox a few times daily.  Also, Brady Sadler wrote a great post on Gowalla.  Gowalla uses email to try to create a more personal bonding experience with its users.

What about Google Wave?  I doubt that it will replace Gmail anytime soon.

Yes, the bottom line is that email is the foundational tool for communication.  You use it every day.  At work, at home, at school, and at play.  Goodmail is creating ways to use video in the inbox and companies like Brightcove should join the bandwagon. Gmail has let us know that you can run YouTube videos inside an email sent to your Gmail account. And Outlook 2010?  Yes, even  Outlook 2010 is going social, streamlining social communications into one platform.

Features of Inbox 2 recognize the many data streams constantly bombarding us and this is a perfect opportunity for the creation of a unified platform.  Exact Target has bought CoTweet.  HubSpot has packaged Inbound Marketing in such a way that demonstrates that they understand the whole “email is glue” concept.  It also demonstrates that they know how to turn potential customers into customers.  So what is the point of all of this?

Email is the way things are and the main line flowing through the Internet. As far as we can see into the future, it will remain so.  Just ask Mark Cuban.

In life, most things are far more complex than they appear at first glance.  Have you ever thought about what goes into making your shower water turn on in the morning?  What makes your microwave heat your food?  What makes your cell phone work?  What gets your piece of mail delivered to a totally different continent?  What gets your email delivered to any place in the world almost instantaneously?  Well, this post isn’t here to answer your questions about showers and microwaves, but maybe it will help answer some questions about email delivery and how it works.

#1) When emails get blocked by ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) can it be a result of content?

Yes, content can affect email blockage.  For instance, anything you put in your email that resembles spam can cause your email to be blocked.  Even if you only have an ad with links in it can cause you to be blocked.  Certain topics and words are generally associated with spammers and are good to avoid (making money, mortgage refinance, medication).  Disguising these words and others like them will only make you appear that much more of a spammer.

#2) Feedback loops—what are they and are they useful?

Feedback loops are basically just that—feedback from users.  Yahoo’s feedback loop, for example, has a spam button that will send a report when clicked by a user.  If you are getting lots of these, then you should probably take a look at what issues are causing complaints and why you are being associated with spam.

#3) What does my email reputation consist of?

Several things, actually.

• First would be your sending infrastructure.  Being compliant and having the latest standards in place is key.  Authentication also plays a vital role (spf records, domain keys, etc).
• Don’t buy email lists and start sending to people who haven’t signed up for your campaigns.  This will definitely add to your complaints and will hurt your reputation.  These spam complaints will damage your reputation.  Be worthy of the trust of your recipients.
• The longer you send from the same IP address, the more your reputation will grow.  Trust is built up over time, so if you are a new sender, use best practices in your campaigns—it will help build that trust.
• Consistency in volume is important.  Don’t send every other day, but you will have to send more than twice a year to have a good email reputation.

#4) Honeypot?  What is that?

A spam trap that is specially placed by blacklist makers and spam watchdogs.  What they do is create email addresses and place them strategically in places that only email harvesters would ever think to look.  This harvester adds them to his email lists and is subsequently caught in the act.  The main point is, don’t buy email lists.  It will get you on a blacklist faster than anything.