With the New Year upon us, I always find it interesting to pause and look back on what happened in the previous year - 2010 was a big year in email marketing. Here's my top five review:

• We saw major changes to the email inbox with both Microsoft and Yahoo updating the way people see their inboxes thanks to filters which show only email messages from friends and family.


• Google went further and released the Priority Inbox feature which aimed to learn which email messages are important to you and promote them to the top of your inbox accordingly.


• It was also a bad year for postmasters; major internet service providers (ISPs) continued to increase automation of spam filters and email sender reputation, and decreased staff.


• The much prophesied "death of email" continued to be delayed, despite continuous proclamations that social media would lead to its death. That's why I made the prediction that "The future of email marketing takes place inside the social networking environment."


• In the end, Facebook ate their words and upped their game "launching" new email features that group messages by sender rather than conversation or date (Note: it doesn’t seem to be widely available yet!). I sense integration between these two channels is set to intensify in 2011. (Read: The power of personal choice: Why Facebook email is a good thing)

I am sure there is plenty more that I have forgotten - feel free to add your 2010 email marketing highlights in the "Comments" area below.

More 2010 email marketing industry news you may have missed:

• Canada Update: Changes in the Canadian Digital Marketing Compliance


• On the radar - Lions, Tigers, Bears, oh Facebook!


• Email User Preferences, ISP Updates & Subscriber Engagement


• Cha Cha Changes - Hotmail that is.

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About the Author

Riaz Kanani (@riazkanani) is Alliances Director for Lyris. Located in London, UK he is responsible for international agencies and partnerships. Riaz is also a member of the UK DMA Email Marketing Council and a passionate advocate and speaker for email marketing, social media and the future of digital marketing.  

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