Email marketing is no longer a one-to-many communications strategy. Today's marketers realize that customized, personalized and timely messages are what drive open rates, click-through and conversion. Consumers expect your messages to cater to their unique interests and purchase patterns. Our experts offer up their best advice to help marketers take advantage of consumer expectations.

Our expert columnists this month offer practical advice regarding the most effective ways to use social media to foster greater loyalty among customers, including strategies around providing meaningful content for maximum engagement; how to use data collected to improve targeting in a way that is integrated with other marketing efforts; and how to measure and track social marketing efforts.

Despite the still-shaky economy, marketers continue to increase their investments in search engine marketing, according to several reports. Two of our Plug-ins experts this month provide their best advice on how to look at navigating the retargeting landscape. Our third expert provides best practices for maximizing search in holiday marketing campaigns in the e-commerce arena.

The printing and production sector has undergone major transformation in a digitally dominated market, and many marketers can now use the dual impact of print media and technology to communicate marketing messages to customers. At the same time, there has been a recalibration of expectations for improved sales and greater return on investment.

Generating qualified, sales-ready leads is often a primary objective for b-to-b direct marketers. The good news is that direct marketing, if done right, is one of the most effective ways to generate, nurture and qualify leads.

Email marketing enables marketers to deliver custom messages directly to an in-box that many consumers check multiple times a day. Best of all, consumers have opted into most email databases, meaning they've already expressed interest in receiving communications from that brand.

With the advent of social CRM, companies can now track and monitor customer behavior to inform segmentation and customization of marketing messages.

Brands need to gain the most from their sales and marketing investments, and now more than ever, proving return on investment is the minimum price of entry to unlocking budget. The most surefire way to gain valuable insight into what's working and why is through marketing analytics, the practice of measuring and managing marketing performance to drive maximum ROI.

If only you had a crystal ball that showed you where your target audience was traveling online, and what it already knew about your company, products and brand.

You can only go to the well so many times.