When the size of images, amount of content and various other issues must be contemplated, why not take advantage of the footers and headers that may not have been reviewed for months, if not years. These may seem like legally-mandated sections, but great emails use every inch of the page to achieve all goals, whether they are legal, marketing or cross promotional in nature

Reid Carr of Red Door Interactive advocates a stronger usage of footers and headers:

In 2006, email is going to become more and more complex to manage, and lists are going to be more difficult to cultivate. List managers will need to be near-perfect in their email marketing practices. This not only includes the content of the email (both marketing and legal), but also how the email is delivered, when it is delivered and who receives it.

A couple key components of the email marketing checklist are the headers and the footers of each email that is sent. Many marketers don't pay enough attention to this anchor real estate. Each has the power to capture the user's attention, leverage the brand, educate and build trust through consistency.

In the few moments that an email is viewed, it has to be clear that it is being sent by someone trustworthy enough to have been granted keys to the inbox. To do this, the email has to clearly show who is sending the email, offer options to allow users to opt-out or change their preferences and highlight CAN-SPAM compliance. It also needs to be consistent in its branding in order to build on any trust the user has in the sender, and it needs to be forthcoming with information to maintain a user's ongoing messages.

On the other side of the battle of the inbox, IT departments and web-based email providers continue to tighten their IT policies in order to protect their users and maintain members, respectively.

Senders must continually use their headers to educate their recipients with new techniques in continuing to receive their email, should a user want to do so. This would include teaching users how to manage their filters, as well as potentially providing users with other delivery options, such as RSS.

With inboxes being more difficult to crack, headers and footers should be treated as critical finishing touches that will help your email get received and your lists fight attrition.