responsive email design

Great examples of responsive email design in this Econsultancy article.
It covers tons of (B2C) categories: Dominos, Expedia, Joy the store, Mulberry, Playstation.

shazam! two email content tips

Free! and Act Now! are tired subject lines and asterisks aren't enough to get noticed, but we still need to grab subscribers' attention with our email messages.  To be creative you also need to be original.  Try thinking about what is interesting to you rather than what will sell your product or service.  Content needs to engage them.

Two tips:

1. Oftentimes, User-generated Content (UGC) is both compelling and genuine.  So be sure to give those customers credit.  Thank them, salute them, send them lots of public messages.  Perhaps you're most impressed they used the word "solemn" to describe a flavor, how they rhymed their comment, or the fact that they purchased 3 gifts in one day.  With their blessing, talk about this. Before you know it, someone will forward your email or make a comment on social media and you've generated energy around your actions... with ancillary benefit to your products/services. 
2. You can't deny the wow. Gas pumps are dirtier than public bathroom toilet seats. Did you know hot dogs choke more children than hard candy? It's more affordable to build your own dog house. The data points obviously need to be relevant to your audience, but you'll add the most value if you, the email sender, are a necessary expert.  Explain something poorly understood.  You need them to read that email. 

say no to "no-reply"

Customers consider no-reply email addresses arrogant.
Consider cutting this practice.
You can learn more about your email list and show much better customer service because:

1. you will receive their auto-reply messages.  this bumps up your open rate and tells you things like which employees have left a company (good for B2B) and holistic seasonal or day-of-week customer trends (good for B2C)
2. customers can reply to you (shocker) to ask a question or otherwise engage with you
3. cuts down on spam complaints

latest mobile email metrics

Mobile phones and tablets accounted for a combined total of 41.1% of US email opens in H2 2012, up from 27.4% in H2 2011

Although read rates are high, conversion rates are lower on mobile devices compared to desktops and laptops. People are primarily using mobile devices to sort through their inbox, then they return to the message later on a larger machine to convert.

More at eMarketer

far from mobile-optimized

Relay Foods.
I appreciate the attempt to jump into a graphics-centered email, but this one flops.
The header bar takes up too much of the preview window on a computer screen, then the (yummy) image sucks up everything else above the fold.  The copy tells us nothing action-oriented that will compel us to continue reading the message.  And there's not even a text link in the first two screens of my phone.  Bummer.

email for customer acquisition

Custora’s “E-Commerce Customer Acquisition Snapshot” reports that the email channel grew from 0.88% of customers acquired in 2009 to 6.84% in 2013.

Between 2011 and 2012, the acquisition numbers doubled from 2.64% to 5.34%, according to the report.  Email is "trickier" than direct mail when it comes to customer engagement: the customer must open the email and then another mechanism (the website) must lead them to purchase.  The addition of mobile device consumption of email has also affected conversion rates.  But the report indicates open rates continue to "exceed 35%."

Source: 

Why Email Marketing’s Significant Growth Continues by Daniela Forte

works for mobile

Carol's Daughter is really nailing the mobile-enabled emails.
Simple message, simple graphics, single call-to-action button that's large enough for a chubby finger to hit on a phone or tablet.

7/17/2013 example: