This article was written today, again from ClickZ. It focuses on email campaigns - the first and last email you send someone. (When someone subscribes and when someone may want to unsubscribe.) The exit strategies are what I found most interesting.

Of course I do wonder how many people track and monitor their email lists and implement these strategies.

Excerpt:

"Last week, my amazing co-columnist Jeanne Jennings wrote about retention e-mail marketing tactics gone bad. In her column, she questions whether continuing to send e-mail that gets absolutely no response is an example of persistence or of arrogance. She points out this type of effort has serious implications; it could be the future cause of spam complaints.

For me, Jeanne's column was perfectly timed. When it published, I was at a high-tech business-to-business (B2B) workshop speaking about e-mail marketing best practices. On my list of the top five strategic elements to drive successful e-mail, my number one item is all about designing entrance and exit strategies.

Many people forget e-mail isn't brand new to recipients. This sounds like a strange statement to make, but think about it. How many times do you receive e-mail messages from a company for a few months, and each starts out as if they were the first e-mail the company ever sent to you?

And how many times have you not opened, read, or clicked on an e-mail for months, yet the messages keep coming to your inbox?"

More...