How are you telling your company's story in your emails? Inboxes are a personal space, really -- people have invited you there. So why not shape your emails into campaigns that showcase exactly you who are? Why not make them ... epic? You can tell your story one email at a time, and this presentation is chock-full of examples of companies doing just that. Of course, you want to base these techniques on a solid content strategy and frame it up with good design. (You can read more about that on our blog at www.myemma.com/blog.) Also, consider segmenting your audience, which can increase revenue up to nine times. Then get to even more fun stuff: Tell stories about who you are and what you do in a way that's relevant, and in a way that values where you are in your relationship with each person on your list. Your emails will seem grand -- and, yes, possibly epic -- before you know it.

2. Email: the genre everyone reads.

3. Those stories of email's demise? Yeah, not so much. Inbox-checking is a habit -- a national pastime, if you will. Almost everyone (93% of adults, to be precise) subscribes to at least one email marketing list, and ROI for email is still stronger than most marketing channels (more than $40 for every $1 spent). Email’s where you can tell your story and engage those folks who’ve invited you to their inbox.

4. Set your course and roll out your plan.

5. Target your content: speak to your audience

6. Follow those best practices of design & content

7. Find relevance … or make it.

8. Get seasonal, of course (minus the clichés)

9. Tie what you do to what everyone’s talking about

10. Pretend salt has something to do with summer? Sure, why not

11. Create relevance with your own new buzz

12. Create short stories along the way -- vignettes, not novels -- that capture a snippet of who you are.

13. Suggest something they wouldn’t have thought of but will find irresistible

14. Start a revolution and keep it rolling

15. Suggest that destiny is at stake

16. Show exactly who you are in unexpected ways. If that involves pink monsters, so be it.

17. Be personal and engaging at every turn.

18. Stage a “meet cute”

19. Tell them you miss them

20. Engage them even if they’re saying a goodbye of sorts

21. Get and stay connected along the way. (Not in a creepy, all-seeing eye kind of way.)

22. Integrate your email with social (and everywhere else)

23. Send surveys to ask your customers what they want

24. Add it up. Know what’s working and what’s not.

25. Check data and response levels beyond open rates & CTR

26. How’s that story progressing? Measure performance over time

27. Every word matters. Make it memorable every time (and possibly epic). @susangrayblue @emmaemail