Every business – every brand -€“ believes email has a place in its marketing activity. When did you last hear of a company saying, “€œWe’€™ve decided to stop sending email”€? But all the current books on email marketing make the subject seem unnecessarily complex and technical, and they inject a lot of anxiety about inbox overload, over-mailing, wastage and spam.

The Alchemy Worx inbox was brimming with excellent examples of email craft this quarter, making the job of picking three category winners tougher than ever. Now it’€™s over to you. Help us choose an overall winner by voting in our Subscriber’€™s Choice Award. And if you’ve seen or sent something you think is impressive, email it to us. You might even find it up for nomination next time. Your Q1, 2012 winner Pizza Express’€™s Valentine’€™s Day mailing scooped the Subscribers’€™ Choice Award for Q1, with an impressive 72% of the vote. For more sparks of email inspiration, check out the Q1 shortlist.

The London 2012 Olympics is the summer’€™s biggest branding event. Yet the regulations governing brand association with the Games are more restrictive than you might expect -€“ particularly if you’€™re not an official sponsor. So before you dive in, share some of the lessons learned by our Alchemists.

2012 is well under way and we’ve been busy spreading fresh ideas and keeping tabs on exciting new developments in email marketing. In this pick of recent web articles, we’ve highlighted news of an important step forward in email security and some new thoughts on A/B split testing.

We saw some great campaigns during the first three months of 2012, which made the selection process as tricky as ever. But the winners of each category all stood out for a number of reasons… Don’€™t forget to vote for your favourite, and submit any great emails you’€™ve received (or sent!) for consideration in upcoming instalments.

Marketers are often heard talking about strategic planning. It’s the task all of us mean to get around to, but rarely ever do. So with the whole year stretching out before you, it’s time to ask yourself some tough questions about your goals and priorities for 2012 and formulate a strategy for the year ahead.

In your festive round-up of the smartest articles online, we learn how too much data can be dangerous. We challenge conventional wisdom about crowded inboxes, and there’s a guide to writing effective email copy.