I must be getting cranky in my older age. Little things are starting to annoy me more now. So, email marketers, I'm begging you to fix your email-marketing programs. Get your act together so I can enjoy my morning coffee without spitting it out in disgust. My email-marketing pet peeves aren't just about aspects of your emails but also how you run your programs and processes. Here they are, divided into two categories, Program Management and Email Practices:

A successful shopping experience isn't just one where you find exactly what you wanted. Dedicated shoppers know it's also serendipity, such as discovering a tasty gourmet ravioli on your way to pick up a 25-pack of paper towels. Sending the most relevant offers to customers is important. So is using email to introduce products to customers who might not find them any other way, or who think of your company and products only once a year at holidays. A family vacation in Greece got me thinking about email's essential role in discovery as well as sales and branding, and how …

What makes an email successful? Delivering the right message to the right person at the right time on the right device. As a communicator, I like to think of these attributes as context. Here are some ways to get the context right and improve your program.

Humans are lazy by nature. I don't believe that's a surprise to many of you, but how many marketers actually use this knowledge to their advantage? Think about it. How many us know that we have multiple options for buying certain products, yet we gravitate to the brand that provides the easiest checkout, or sends us those emails that we can't resist opening? It's also very likely that brands we're loyal to are the ones we feel understand us the best and provide us with the better experience.