E-mail marketing is alive and well, but the batch-and-blast email approach is on life support. More than ever, consumers are being bombarded with an explosive volume of messages and new channels such as Twitter, while attention spans are growing shorter. Consumers are also smarter and expect more from brands and their marketing efforts. This new paradigm now demands that email marketers take their programs to a more sophisticated level, or risk customer apathy and loss of market share to smarter competitors.