It can be hard for most email marketers to step back from the never-ending campaign production cycle to see what else is going on besides their own deployments.

When reviewing the surge of traffic that came to the site in the first few weeks, I found it fitting that a site about email metrics can shed light on what kind of specifics people are interested in within the email marketing world. Just like looking at one’s response metrics for a campaign, you need to take a step back and look at the big picture on what the data means.

The current buzz in the email industry based on popularity :

HTML vs. text

For several years, companies have debated the pros and cons of sending in HTML versus text only. HTML has always been the runaway favorite for its branding power, merchandising capabilities and ability to track open rates. The debate has taken a new angle with the increasingly complex issues related to rendering, deliverability and preview pane usage. I suspect this subject matter is also popular as it touches all aspects of an email team: creative, analysts, production, copywriters, strategy, etc.

Deliverability

Speaking of hot button issues, deliverability is all the rage these days. With fewer than 50 percent of marketers creating emails that render appropriately, this is deservedly so issues.

Usage

According to a recent Forrester Research study, email has reached almost universal penetration, with 97 percent of consumers and 94 percent of marketers using the channel. With this staggering number, how many marketers could be left on the fence deciding if they should dive into the email space?

The big takeaway from the interest in this type of research and related metrics is hopefully that CMOs and CFOs finally begin to invest in email accordingly.

Frequency

Twenty years from now, I suspect this will be a top five email conversation piece as well. However, it amazes me that as much noise that surrounds the number of emails sent by a company, there is little action or change to correlate with this key topic. First and foremost, try asking your subscribers how often they want to get messages from you. Also, test segmenting your non responders with a roll up of your messages that lightens the frequency of emails they receive. Just like three calls a week to mom might be too much, try pulling back on your list, too.

Authentication

My guess is this area is misunderstood and well trafficked as marketers seek information on what authentication really means, who should be utilizing it and how. This could be positive news for those offering services in this area as there is at least a curiosity in this relatively new niche of email marketing deliverability services.

What’s not on email marketers’ minds? Must Not!

Just as telling from my research was the least viewed category: spam. I would like to think this is because all marketers are fully compliant with CAN-SPAM but with 81 percent of marketers unaware of CAN-SPAM. I am afraid this is not the case. Let’s hope we see a trend in CAN-SPAM compliance for all email marketers.