Now this is the point that I evoke the Proton Pack wearing words of Harold Ramis – “whatever you do, don’t cross the beams, Ray.”

Crossing my beams (read=digital marketing analyst is an emusic supported musician). Like most independent musicians, I struggle with distribution. My perspective on the tail is that it is very long. The advice that I share with marketers on a daily basis applies here too, as the battle for the day job masked musician is the same as the big box retailer marketer or dare I say Moby ... it is relevancy and context. The fact that emusic and indie artist oriented services like them are able to bring in the unprotected offerings of the “mainstream” only helps to make the long tail grow stronger and as such more relevant for a larger share of the masses.

However there are many positive bright spots within in our marketplace as many JupiterResearch clients and non-clients pointed out in their presentations at the Email Insider Summit and SIPA conferences last week. Some of the more interesting case studies where Quiznos use of couponing in email and a slide that I borrowed from Ogilvy’s Jeanniey Mullen showing an interesting use of text messaging by Delta to capture email opt-in at the baggage claim.

The Email Insider and SIPA blogs capture many of those ups and downs as well as do a fine job of summarizing many of my key take aways.

All in all 2008 looks like it is poised for progress, as many marketers that I have been speaking with are aligning their budgets to make it a break out year. Our brand new Email Marketing Forecast (2007-2012) underscores that growth and positive outlook.

There have been some wonderful presentations and content, but my old Jupiter alum Alan Chappell’s discussion today with Kevin Olsen, Director of Consumer Protection for the State of Utah was classic.

In one exchange Alan asked Mr. Olsen about the breach of the registry, to which Mr. Olsen replied he wasn’t aware of any breaches. This reminded me of that Hurricane Katrina moment when Soledad O’Brien told an unaware FEMA Director Brown that there were people staged in the convention center and that CNN had been reporting on that for days. Heck of a job Olsen!

Mr. Olsen did not share any information on how the successful the list was, unable to report on the number of complaints or citations since the lists inception. He did however repeatedly mention that it was hard to track down senders that didn’t comply, underscoring just how unfeasible enforcement of such a system is when there is universal standard for sender authentication.

The premise of such registries are still flawed as I have pointed out earlier, and the sentiment of the attendees at the insider summit is still the same one of frustration.

Dylan Boyd of eROI does a good job of summarizing some of the other sessions in his blog.

One of my main takeaways was that consumers are most concerned about missing transactional email. When asked which classes of email that they were most concerned with getting blocked they said, order confirmations (53%) and banking statements (51%) over promotional mailings (10%). These types of messages are a good candidate to trial services such as Goodmail’s. Additionally, marketers must stay focused on subscriber behavior with an eye towards lapsed behavior, particularly as it relates to all of those free webmail accounts (i.e. honey pots). My latest research dives into that topic in more detail.

Today’s theme appears to be email delivery as two of my industry colleagues, Jared Reitzin and Stefan Pollard published articles on tactics to assist in navigating the murky waters of email delivery. Both articles include many helpful tips.

However if you are a Specialized Information Publisher and in that Association, and the ebb and the flow of the holiday season tis only a flesh wound, then you should be aware of the this event beginning on 12/13. I will be on hand to run some small roundtables as well as present the closing keynote with my very capable colleague from the eec/Ogilvy, Jeanniey Mullen.

Lastly if you can’t pull yourself away from the pace of the holiday spirit (read: Muzak= Crosby, Como and Bowie?) then you must plan ahead for 2008.

Retailers must notice the perspective that my colleague Zia Daniell Wigder will share on globalization, while I rap on with our latest marketing research at Shop.org Innovation 2008 (1/23/08).

Marketers must attend the eec/DMA Email Evolution Conference where I will be on-hand with Microsoft, Ogilvy and Exact Target to kick off this stellar event on 2/12/08. The “Evolution” is the must attend event for all digital marketers that have love/respect/fear/unawareness and understanding for email as the linchpin of digital marketing and messaging in our lifetime. JupiterResearch in partnership with the eec/DMA are offering our audience $300 off the Evolution Conference. Contact me or your JupiterResearch representative for those details.

Tis the season to spread cheer and insight through experience as well as a better understanding for the radical changes that will plague the future of the digital marketing landscape.

Key Finding = Get out of the office. See what other marketers are doing and discover what you are up against.

However, most marketers don't employ this tactic, which my friend Bill McCloskey rightly is frustrated by. His, dare I say rant?, this week points out all that is missing in the un/subscribe tactics of some of the largest senders. My assumption is that there would be fewer spam complaints against legitimate senders if those senders did a better job of empowering the subscriber to manage their preferences.

If you missed me at this event, you can still register for the Clickz E-mail event which I will be keynoting next week in San Francisco.