The natural evolution of marketing is like this: a thought, a concept, a plan, execution, implementation, and consultation after the fact. The problem that most companies suffer from is they go from thought to execution without any concept or plan. Then they rely on consultants to tell them what they already know. Outside validation is what's important. If two people agree, that's collaboration. If three people agree, it must be a trend. Or is it?
One of the simplest automated emails that any company can send out is a birthday (or anniversary) email. ING Direct embeds a nicely simple video ("What Matters Most", 189k YouTube views) in its birthday email sent to customers.
