If you've been an email marketer for awhile, you know how swiftly the landscape can change and evolve: What worked in 2011 won't necessarily work in 2012.

Scary thought, yes. But some trends do indeed prove timeless.

In an article at MarketingProfs, Maciej Ossowski offers a list of 2011 trends that will continue to dominate best practices as 2012 unfolds before us. Here's a quick roundup of trends that haven't lost their currency—and shouldn't do so anytime soon:

Relevancy. Like it or not, prioritized delivery from ESPs like Gmail and Hotmail treat irrelevant messages like spam's barely-respectable cousin. Even if your email makes it to a subscriber's inbox, low-priority status might land it where she never sees it. "2012 is all about tailor-made offers matching the recipients' preferences," Ossowski notes. "If you miss that, you will lose conversions, decrease your sending reputation, and wind up in the junk folder."

Personalization. It's no longer good enough to greet a recipient by name. Use purchase history, website activity and customer relationship management (CRM) data to learn about your audience and create the exact content they want to see.

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