What does it take to be a great email marketer? We’ve asked you to have and maintain a great reputation. We’ve asked you to be honest with your recipients. You have to be exactly who you say you are and send what you say you’re going to deliver. You can’t pretend to be something cool like a doctor or stuntman to impress potential recipients. As if all those requirements aren’t tough enough, we’re now going to ask you to make one final commitment: engagement.

We only just met. Now we’re talking engagement? I know the mere thought of commitment makes some of you break out in a rash. Understandably, engagement can be a pretty scary prospect. But take it from me, there’s nothing to fear. Now is the time to embrace engagement in a big way because engagement is the new black, the way of the jungle, the bee’s knees, and the cat’s meow all rolled into one. Engagement will be the single most important buzzword you hear in email marketing this year.

Here’s the skinny on engagement. Every day, the path to your customer’s inbox gets more and more narrow. ISPs are now not only looking at your reputation, mailing history and content before deciding to deliver to the inbox or the bulk folder, they now want your recipients to actually engage with your messages. Engagement in its simplest form means that when an email arrives in an inbox, it is actually opened and clicked. If messages aren’t engaging to their recipients, ISPs have started to help recipients out with inbox maintenance. You read that right. Messages that don’t generate clicks and opens will be filtered to the bulk or spam folders.

So what does this mean for senders? It means we’ve got to make ourselves presentable very quickly. Our reputation still matters. Our identity and infrastructure still matter. But, now we also have to be charming. You can put your best foot forward in email by following some of these best practices:

• Only send messages with a clear purpose and message — all email should have a clear and identifiable call to action
• Email templates should resemble your Web site to help with visual identification
• “From” names should clearly identify your company and not change
• Subject lines should clearly explain what your message is about

Commitment is good once you take the first step to building a long lasting relationship with your customers. Go out and get engaged!