EmailLabs' GM and VP of sales answers questions about the current state and future of email marketing.

iMedia: What trends are happening in email marketing?

Herbold: Today we see more marketers taking advantage of the inherent capabilities of email-marketing technology. They are becoming more comfortable with email's advanced automation capabilities. This drives integration with web analytics, sales and CRM databases and the use of dynamic content technologies and leads to a more personalized and segmented approach across all marketing activities.

iMedia: What is the state of email marketing industry?

Herbold: Email marketing is alive and well, with a strong and growing demand for both technology and services. We and our clients continue to see that email is the preferred means to communicate with customers. Although search is popular for customer acquisitions, email is how companies and their customers establish dialog and relationships. We are also seeing consolidation in our industry. Buyers are acquiring companies for their strong business models and customer bases and are filling gaps in their offerings with email marketing technologies. We still face challenges from spam and deliverability, but I'm glad to report spam didn't kill email, as some predicted. Key members of the email-marketing industry are working together to adopt authentication, reputation and accreditation techniques to solve the deliverability challenge.

iMedia: How are marketers integrating email with the rest of their marketing strategies?

Herbold: Email is all about the relationship. Most marketers now use search, online advertising, print, etc., for customer acquisition, but those methods don't establish the relationship.Through email, prospects can establish a permission-based relationship that allows the marketer to conduct lifecycle-messaging programs that move prospects down the sales cycle and increase loyalty from existing customers. Because email is really database-driven, many marketers are now actively integrating and synchronizing the data and learnings from their other marketing programs into their email programs. The email database is becoming the foundation of CRM programs.

iMedia: With spam still proliferating and more and more consumers using email blockers, is email marketing still a killer app?

Herbold: Absolutely! Email is without a doubt still the best marketing vehicle invented. Name another channel that combines the ROI and functionality of email via dynamic personalization, behavioral segmentation, data integration, trigger-based campaigns and the ability to test, track and analyze at the most detailed level.

It really is simple. Marketers who make email a priority, who move beyond the "load and blast" mentality and follow best practices, will see minimal delivery challenges and a high ROI. Marketers who don't take this approach will become irrelevant to their subscribers and customers and will continue to complain about issues such as falling open rates and spam filtering.

Marketers need to understand that email is magical, but it isn't magic. Your results are predicated on how much effort you put into your program.

iMedia: What's the most innovative use of email marketing you've seen?

Herbold: Most of the very cool deployments of email marketing revolve around the use of advanced technology such as API integration, triggers and dynamic content. For example, we have a client that sends emails to their subscribers personalized with the prices of up to 10 homes recently sold and 10 recently listed on the market in their zip code. An agency client sends emails for car dealers to their service customers with dynamic content based on the customer's make, model, year of car and their service history. So a customer might receive a reminder that it has been 4 months since their last oil change and information on new car models based on the model they currently own.

iMedia: What's the most important thing email marketers need to know?

Herbold: It's all about relevance. Relevance drives success in email marketing. Marketers should make sure that the content they are sending is relevant to their customers' needs and wants. Relevance takes into account several email-marketing principles and best practices, including permission, personalization, segmentation, creative approach and frequency. At the end of the day, customers and subscribers will reward those companies that offer the most targeted content and offers.

iMedia: What are some of the mistakes marketers make with email marketing?

Herbold: Marketers tend to make mistakes in the strategic big picture and to commit common tactical errors. Big-picture mistakes include not allocating enough resources. Email typically will generate the highest ROI of various marketing vehicles, but most companies are not allocating commensurate resources. It is easy to implement a "load and blast" type program, but maximizing your return requires additional expertise, advanced technology and greater allocation of time. Marketers also fail to utilize the capabilities of email technology, such as personalization, segmentation, automation, triggers and advanced reporting. This means they might not connect with customers' needs and wants.

Finally, some marketers deploy email as if it were just an electronic version of direct mail. They send out messages with creative and functionality mistakes such as bad subject lines, a messy top, and no information showing in the preview pane, making the entire email a single image, creating an ugly text version and using inappropriate sender lines. Any or all of these mistakes can reduce your message's delivery and intended result.

iMedia: What is the future of email marketing?

Herbold: We expect to see email marketing evolve into a full-time role and career path at most companies, similar to the way the PR function emerged in marketing departments a few decades ago. In most companies today, email marketing is one aspect of a marketing person's role. But in the next few years, more companies will establish full-time positions for email marketing. With this, the industry will see greater adoption of sophisticated techniques, better permission practices and increasing ROI. Also, look for continued consolidation in the industry and additional integration of customer data from Web analytics, direct mail, surveys and other sources directly into email campaigns. Spam will continue to be an issue, but legitimate email marketers will have the tools and technologies to eliminate email delivery challenges. Finally, trigger-based emails will emerge as the most successful tool in a marketer's arsenal.

As general manager and vice president of sales, Jim Herbold brings 15 years of management, sales and operations experience in domestic and international organizations to EmailLabs, with proven success in driving revenue and directing business strategy. His responsibilities as general manager and vice president sales include managing overall operations, directing the sales function and expanding the company's leadership in the email marketing industry. Before joining EmailLabs, Jim was a director of business development at AboveNet, a global fiber optics and data center provider. Jim was involved in a variety of technology and investment projects while working for the National Computer Board of Singapore, and began his career at MCI Telecommunications as part of the sales team servicing Citicorp, MCI's then-largest client. Jim earned a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College.