Email is an addiction
October 27th, 2006 | Melissa MarronEarlier this week, I was perusing the web looking for some current trends in email marketing. I found some experts claiming that email marketing is dead. Others say that it has just changed format (i.e. RSS feeds). In my opinion, I really don’t think we can stop email marketing or even change it drastically. Why? Our society is addicted to email. Marketing VOX reported that a recent study by eROI showed 61% of respondents check email while on vacation and 90% read their email six days a week. With so many people handcuffed to their email, how can we not afford to continue to market via email? Do we just have to get more creative in how we do it?
October 27th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Always be wary when someone claims something is dead. I think, though, that that the early phase of email marketing - when you could throw any crap out there & something would stick - has passed us by.
Those people checking email all the time aren’t doing it because they want to see what marketers have sent them; they’re doing it to see what their boss or their staff or their customers have sent them.
A lot of email marketing is really, really bad - basically delivering blasts of unwanted information to people. As a result much of it is tuned out (thus the “it’s dead, Jim” pronouncements).
But the good stuff still works. What this means for us is that you need to make it relevant, expected, engaging, and useful - what it should have been all along.
November 9th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Email marketing will not die until there’s a new paradigm - like the shift from paper to digital — say like holograms or similar (I know that’s pretty out there but I’m just making a point). People like email - it’s short and sweet at least it should be. And very cost effective .. and trackable. No email won’t die but the creative will get alot more interesting.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Email is by no means dead. Effective email targeting however is ever-changing. Just like spammers adjust tactics to get around the latest-greatest in spam-blockers, email marketers must learn to adapt. Effective email marketing means providing valuable communication, something that’s not only worth opening and reading but actual warrants a repeat visit. This is something a lot of online retailers have gotten very good at. For those advertising products/services that may not begin and end with free shipping & “final sale” discounts, the job is a bit more daunting.
John’s post is right on “you need to make it relevant, expected, engaging, and useful”. There is too much junk out there for people to sort through- I see way too often email campaigns being used to communicate in the wrong way. “Announcements” simply won’t keep people coming back. Email marketing should be looked at in the same way a company’s product or service is. What can it provide the end consumer with that is useful & valuable that they can’t or won’t get somewhere else…