Getting your customers to pay attention to your email marketing communications may become more difficult with future improvements to email client technology if you're not explicitly whitelisted by them.

Miles Libby, the anti-spam project manager for Yahoo, had discussed upgrades to their email client that ties back to their DomainKeys email authentication process. For their upcoming release, each email will have a rating that indicates email sender authenticity.

This development makes email reputation and deliverability more of a priority as it will be visualized with the email itself. And as the technology gains traction, the decision to open an email may weigh more heavily on the sender authentication than on the subject line.

In a business or work environment, it's not unusual to be bombarded by massive amounts of email, but there are technology solutions out there that are gaining ground with Web 2.0 email users. Xobni is a free application developed by a San Francisco-based company that uses integrated technology and analytics that tie right into Microsoft Outlook. Xobni automatically threads email conversations and provides the user with an email analytics overview of their personal email volume and the volume of emails exchanged between all their contacts by the time of day.

Xobni's features will probably prove beneficial to email marketers. With tools that make email management more efficient, received commercial emails won't get in the way as much, perhaps reducing their negative perception and providing lift to customer retention statistics. On the other hand, reducing the need to read through subject lines when searching for a particular conversation might also reduce the chances of your email marketing to catch the attention of your audience.

With changes in the way consumers are going to be receiving email, there is a need for a co-evolution of marketing software that provides innovative marketing solutions that work with these new Web 2.0 email technologies.