By Loren McDonald, Vice President of Industry Relations

One of email's great attributes is its flexibility. Another is its ability to deliver dynamically targeted messages in a true one-to-one fashion. Together, these characteristics combined with the rise of social and mobile channels are poised to make email more powerful than ever--but only if marketers evolve along with communication methods, taking the time to think strategically and holistically about these channels and leveraging each to strengthen the other.

The first step in realizing email's full potential is understanding the changes fueling the channel's evolution. Within the "mocial" (mobile, social, local) landscape, there are three key trends to consider:

1) Social media is emerging as an effective broadcast messaging channel. By distributing "broadcast" messages via platforms such as the Facebook news feed and Twitter, marketers can take advantage of the potential of social messages to go viral in a bigger way through retweets, "likes" and content-sharing. And as email is freed up more from its responsibilities as a broadcast medium, marketers can focus on using it to pursue more ambitious aspirations such as behavior-triggered messaging.

2) The process of checking and reading email is changing with the emergence of mobile. People on smart phones, tablets and other portables are likely to be more purpose-driven and/or have less time to scroll down through the inbox. The days of recipients kicking back at their desks and opening each email in search of interesting messages have been replaced by recipients hurriedly glancing at their smart phone inboxes as they dash from one place to another. Thus, timely, relevant, personalized emails will have a decided advantage since they will be more likely to catch the eye and demand to be opened.

3) People are moving in and out of different mocial channels throughout the day. Marketers leaning too heavily on a single channel run the risk of missing opportunities to connect with their customers and prospects. By reaching out across a variety of touch points in an integrated, strategic fashion you can maximize the chance of communicating your message, driving greater ROI across email, social and mobile channels.
So how will email's focus change in this evolving mocial world? For one, the role of email as a branding exercise may begin to shift, as recipient tolerance for generic, sales-oriented emails decreases and messages with no purpose besides keeping the brand fresh in the mind begin increasingly disappearing into a bulk folder or the bottom of an already overloaded inbox.

Moving forward, then, the branding function might be performed more effectively through social channels or via mobile apps. And with email freed from performing these branding tasks, the opportunity is greater than ever to realize the channel's potential to engage recipients with messages they care about, value, open and act on. Here are five key roles for email in a mocial environment:

1) Deliverer of complex, personalized offers: Email remains the only medium in which you can send highly personalized offers to customers based on demographics and recent Web, email and purchase behavior; incorporate cross-sell recommendations; pull in customer reviews of specific products; and serve up real-time A/B split test images.

2) Extender of social and mobile reach: Savvy marketers can use email call-outs to grow followers and fans, increase app downloads and/or explain the benefits of your local check-in program. Better still, email is also a great way to keep subscribers engaged in your other channels by, for example, announcing Facebook contests, providing tips on how to get the most put of an app, or delivering a reminder to take advantage of a Foursquare check-in promotion.

3) Portal for nurturing and conversion: According to several recent studies, email continues to be the channel consumers prefer for promotional messaging. And because of its ability to target, use dynamic content and move consumers in and out of nurturing programs or tracks, email will continue to be the most successful channel at producing profitable conversions.

4) Transactional messenger: For all their strides, social and mobile remain less robust communication experiences than email, making email the best vehicle for delivering private transactional messages ill-suited for social arenas.

5) Increaser of share of wallet: Boosting customer loyalty is essential to increasing lifetime customer value. And given its unparalleled ability to leverage customer data and targeting technologies to identify and engage brand advocates, encourage repeat purchases and increase margins, email will remain the channel of choice for growing share of wallet.

By shifting your email program to focus on highly targeted, behavior-triggered messaging--and integrating it in new and exciting ways with social, mobile and local marketing efforts--you'll help ensure you continue to get the most out of the channel in this changing mocial landscape.