We hope everyone is having a lovely start to the month. As usual, we’re sharing the top email marketing articles and posts that we saw over the last week, including some of the most important email metrics of 2013, insight into engagement, and common email mistakes.

• Three New Email Metrics You Will be Using in 2013 – George Bilbrey explains the three email marketing metrics you’ll use in the coming year to better understand your program and to learn what you can do to improve engagement and deliverability.
• Four common email marketing mistakes that lead to unsubscribes – While email marketers have to understand that unsubscribes aren’t the worst thing that can happen to their list, it’s important to avoid mistakes that irritate subscribers and make them unsubscribe. This Econsultancy article lists some common blunders to avoid.
• Mid-Month Email Menagerie – September 2012 – Jim Davidson of Bronto checks out over 4,000 emails every month and reports back on hits, misses, and growing trends.
• Bathrooms, QR Codes, and Growing Your Email List – With a title like that, how can it not be a great post? DJ Waldow shares a little inspiration from a San Francisco sushi restaurant for growing your email list.
• It’s People! Engagement Is Made out of People! – Another fantastic title (with a nice nod to Charlton Heston). This post is a good reminder that email marketing engagement comes down to understanding the people on your list and delivering relevant content to them.

What have you been reading this week? We’d love to hear. Drop us a note in the comments or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Pinterest.

Photo courtesy of Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com.