In case you missed them, these are some of the stories that made the rounds at our office last week, including tips to encourage subscribers to update their preferences, using special characters, and how a welcome series can increase revenue and open rates.

• Why Should I Update My Email Preferences? – DJ Waldow talks about his favorite tactics for getting subscribers to update their preferences and information.
• Email Marketing: Six-email welcome increases revenue 13%, open rate 66% – MarketingSherpa shares a case study in which an email welcome series increased opens and revenue. Sometimes, more email can be better if you ensure that the emails are relevant to the subscriber at that moment.
• How to get special results from special characters – Special characters have been getting a lot of attention recently! Alchemy Worx weighs in with how to best use them to improve your campaigns.
• A Tool Belt For Today’s Email Marketers – Responsys’s Wacarra Yeomans takes a moment to give a rundown of the best tools that her team uses to improve their email marketing game.
• Use Web Analytics to Choose Email Subject Lines – There are tons of ways to use data to improve your email campaigns. This post explores how you can use information gleaned on your website to improve open rates.

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