While the date has yet to be set for the forthcoming general election, all political parties are gearing up to campaign in what promises to be the most closely contested general election in years.

As the Obama presidential campaign in 2008 showed, the difference between winning and losing could come down to which candidate operates the most effective communications campaign. A well executed digital marketing campaign undoubtedly helped to connect President Obama with voters in a way no politician has done so before.

Regular targeted and personalised emails to voters proved to be one of the most powerful communications tools in the Obama’s election campaign. It remains to be seen whether any of the UK’s mainstream political parties will harness the power of email marketing in a similar fashion, but recent history suggests they’d be foolish not to.

In this month’s Infobox Return Path’s Stephanie Miller looks at the rules of engagement when it comes to inbox placement; David Hughes of Email Academy puts forward his case for why averages don’t tell us anything interesting; Newsweaver’s Denise Cox addresses the challenges and choices around videos in email; and James Bunting of Communication explains why he’s impressed by the way Amazon uses data. For DMA members’ eyes only, this month’s special report is Anatomy of an Email Newsletter Checklist.

Why Good Email Gets Marked as Bad, Stephanie Miller

Don’t be Mr. Average: why averages are a bad, bad thing in email marketing, David Hughes

Video in email, denise Cox

Campaigns We Like: Amazon, James Bunting 

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