Before moving on to the next big thing in digital marketing, Acxiom Digital's VP and GM suggests marketers boost email marketing results. Here are five ideas to make it happen.

While agencies and marketers are all buzzing about the next big thing in digital marketing -- RSS, mobile marketing, user-generated content, and (my favorite) viral marketing -- the real focus of digital marketing -- email marketing in all its forms -- is often overlooked. That's unfortunate because email, along with search, is the strategic heart of web marketing right now. Yet, within too many marketing departments, the email group is often off in a corner, treated as tacticians who execute, rather than as subject matter experts who can help make a company's entire marketing effort more effective and efficient. Instead, the folks getting all the attention are the ones launching the new marketing blog.

Let's pause for just one moment and consider two basic facts:

• The cost of buying impressions online is only going to move in one direction-- and it isn't down.
• Real ROI in digital marketing comes from conversion rates, not eyeballs.

If you find yourself agreeing with these basic premises, then the value of integrating your email marketing within your overall efforts should become ever more obvious. Why? Because it can, and should, be the bridge between all the other tactics you use to help move customers through a purchase and repurchase cycle. In addition, email marketing provides metrics for ROI and conversion measurement not available anywhere else.

Another important impetus for integrating your email (and your email team) into your broader planning efforts is the simple truth that too many marketers neglect to determine what they are going to do next after they've reached a specific goal in their digital marketing program.

So you've successfully driven someone to a landing page from a banner or paid search ad. Now what? Email is a great solution for what to do next-- as long as you give them a good reason to opt-in for ongoing email communications. Maybe someone has transacted with your commerce site. Now what? You can insert additional cross-sell offers into your confirmation email.

The best part of all is that you can collect data at each of these points -- preferences, purchase history, search terms used -- that lets you know more about your prospects and customers and actually helps you predict what to do next.

So to help you get started, I've listed five ideas to ensure better digital marketing communication, and better results, from both your email campaigns, and your overall marketing efforts.

1: Always remember, objectives drive strategies and strategies drive tactics. We've all heard this before, but we often don't really follow this rule. Let's face it, your offline and online agencies like to start with a website and rich media banners, and go from there. But a website or online ads are merely tactics. They are not strategies. If you allow objectives to drive your strategies, then your correct mix of digital tactics will be obvious, as will the role each should play (including email) towards the achievement of your marketing objectives. Look at the big picture and plug in the right mix of tactics.

2: Don't underestimate the importance of developing valuable and relevant content. Email blasters don't often get a seat at the table during digital marketing planning, and justifiably so. It might be good for sales, but don't call it marketing. If you want to be (or are) part of the discussion, then you must ensure that your email content is always valuable and relevant to the recipient regardless of which stage of the buying process they are in. Admittedly, meaningful content is costly to execute, but poor content is even costlier because it's spam and the minute a customer thinks you're spamming them, the trust you've carefully tried to build up evaporates. It's not always easy, but it is always worth it.

3: Transactional emails are a marketing channel. Transactional emails, including order and shipping confirmations, don't require the recipient to opt-in and can include cross-sell and upsell marketing offers that fall within CAN-SPAM guidelines. Too many companies send out non-HTML (text) confirmations, ignoring the fact that relevancy and frequency are great predictors of future purchase intent. On top of that, these emails get opened and read, but marketers rarely track delivery, open, click and conversion rates of transactional emails (often because they don't think they can-- but there are ways to do so).

4: Integrate paid search with email. As I said up front, search and email are the strategic heart of web marketing, so this is a great place to start your commitment to integration. Doing so will both help you grow your opt-in email list and manage your paid placement leads-- hot prospects who are actively seeking your product or service. Search > landing page/preference center > opt-in > follow-up email communications is a logical communication strategy that leads to better conversion rates, and makes email an integral part of a broader campaign.

5: Don't believe the hype. Until you can safely say you are spending what you should be spending on email marketing, ignore the siren call of the next big thing. Why should anyone involved in marketing at your company spend a single moment thinking about buzz marketing until everyone agrees that your email program's potential has been fully explored in terms of your overall digital marketing efforts? 

Ultimately, making email a more important part of your broader digital marketing efforts boils down to three simple things:

• Provide something of real value in exchange for email opt-in
• Provide ongoing information and value through the purchase cycle
• Segment your audience and target your messaging.

Do this, and you're in the game.

Chris Marriott is vice president and general manager, Eastern Region, Acxiom Digital. Read full bio.