With all the new platforms emerging as the latest and greatest new marketing channel, email strikes many as old-fashioned.

One reason email is so effective is because it provides a more personal connection than other digital strategies. It takes the conversation about your association out of the public domain, off your website or social media channels, for example, and into a very personal space...your inbox.

Email marketing allows businesses to communicate with engaged and interested customers who have requested to receive information. This can be in the form of coupons, alerts of promotions and events, and regularly timed newsletters. List segmentation allows for more targeted one-to-one communication and can help increase relevancy and purchase intent among an interested audience.

A successful email campagin includes:

• Effective subject lines so recipients open your messages
• Effective and creative headlines and subheadings
• Asthetically pleasing messages even when the images are disabled

As with your friendly neighborhood cockroach, which has survived millions of years, through ice ages and nuclear war, email has demonstrated its staying power. So don't give up on it yet.