This question was asked recently at LinkedIn: “Is email marketing dead?” How many times have I heard that before or, even worse, the pronouncement of its demise? The first time I recall hearing the statement was at Blog Business Summit in 2005 when Chris Pirillo made it during a session. (He later recanted the statement, to some extent at least.)
Certainly, there have been numerous challengers to email marketing’s throne, not the least of which is social media. However, email is still a vibrant, growing medium that has a future for a number of reasons.
Reason #1: Email Sending Platform Vendors
There are way too many email marketing platform providers for this industry to die. Do you think companies like Vertical Response, Constant Contact, Lyris, MailChimp, Exact Target, Emma, iContact, Bronto, Blue Sky Factory and other such providers are going to simply lie down and let email marketing go the way of the albatross? Not for one minute!
Read this recent post from Bronto that speaks directly to the notion that email is dying: “Email marketing can co-exist with any marketing channel; more importantly, email can help leverage social media and vice versa … Consumers aren’t choosing one medium over the other; they are simply utilizing more mediums than ever before.”
Also, consider the fact of how many more email marketing platform providers there are now. The list above includes several newer industry participants, MailChimp, Emma, and Blue Sky Factory to name just a few.
Reason #2: Email is Ingrained in Our Marketing Psyche
Email has been around almost since the advent of the Internet. It’s a staple of the marketing milieu and one of the most commonly used forms. It’s still effective, both from a cost and conversion standpoint.
For example, according to research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing generated an ROI of $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009. The expected figure for 2010 is $42.08.
Reason #3: Email and Social Media Can Work Together
For years, I taught that blogs and email are akin to a digital peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They are made for each other in terms of repurposing content and as complimentary channels by which brands can stay top of mind with their customer.
That’s true of other forms of social media as well. Consider that social networks like Facebook rely on email as a vital communication channel. Email notifications can be sent to everyone of a brand’s fans from their Fan Page, for example. These messages are not merely transactional in nature either, but often marketing-oriented.
While benign by comparison to more full-fledged platforms such as those listed above, the fact is email is there, baked right into a key piece of the largest, fastest-growing, most ubiquitous social network known to man.
Reason #4: Small Businesses Aren’t Using Email, But They Will
For all the organizations using email marketing effectively, many are not, especially small businesses.
That leaves room for a lot of opportunity, which is why email marketing platform providers such as Vertical Response and Constant Contact are mounting intensive marketing efforts to change that; small businesses are their bread and butter. (VR even has a Twitter channel devoted specifically to small business, @vr4smallbiz.)
Email marketing is not going anywhere but up in my opinion. It may no longer be the only channel by which marketer’s communicate with customers, but it’s certainly not dying. So, can we lay that argument to rest?
I also believe that e-mail marketing is an excellent channel as part of a larger communications mix. It allows for targeted and personalized messaging and can be segmented in ways that social media can’t always do. Thanks, Paul.
As much as people keep claiming the end is nigh for email, I believe that it is now entrenched in many people’s lives and as such will continue to perform well. Its ability to become part of a total communication mix is the key to email staying relevant.
The only way email marketing would die is if email itself died. Your point about social media is dead on. One point I would add is that email marketing is a great tool for following up. I think companies like Expedia and Southwest do a great job of this with their follow up campaigns. Email marketing isn’t dying its just hasn’t been in the spot light as much since social media took off. Great post Paul
[...] today’s email marketing buzz we get treated to some nostalgia and some future gazing. First, MarketingProfs takes a look at the future of email marketing and decides that change is good but, the end is not [...]
You may be right but when I ask my MBA students for a synonym for email marketing 100% of them answer “spam”. It may not die but it better change.
I believe that products such as smart phones and iPad (and completion) will help email open and response rates. Text is okay, but email is a richer media. Yes SPAM is an issue, but it really is pretty easy to delete, much easier than a spam snail mail or a spam telephone call.
People love to talk about how much they hate spam email, but they just deal with it. As marketers we need to figure out how we can increase open rates by providing interesting and relevant information.
Thanks, Harry. You are absolutely correct.
@Paul, Great article! As someone who works at an ESP (Blue Sky Factory), I especially like #1. One of my favorite parts about this industry is that the ESPs are in this together. While we *should* be in competition for clients, most ESPs see the bigger picture, in that we’re in it for the good of email. We take the approach of educating marketers on best practices and compliance to encourage all marketers to practice permission-based email marketing (see collaborative organizations like the EEC). The more people who practice this, the better off everyone will be with regards to getting their emails delivered. This will also help people like @barterpaul’s students think of email marketing as valuable communication rather than spam.
Great job!
Amy Garland
Blue Sky Factory
@amygarland
Thanks Amy. I appreciate your adding that insight to the conversation and glad to see ESPs working together for the good of the industry as a whole.
An opposing view. I believe email is in decline because of the growth of competing marketing channels.
#1. “There are way too many email marketing platform providers for this industry to die.”
That argument does not work for me as it could have been used by any number of dead businesses. Passenger trains: “Too much railroad track has been laid to sit by and watch airplanes fly away with our customers.” Landlines, post cards, VCRs, printed newspapers, etc, etc.
#2 “Email is Ingrained in Our Marketing Psyche.” Maybe to those in the trade but information consumers? Not so sure. More and more people subscribe to RSS feeds to read their subscriptions, myself included. It’s very convenient to have all the reading in one place and feeds can include a call to action like an email. Free services like feedburner provide handy statistical data, bypass the spam problem, and require no third party involvement or fees.
Also, email marketing’s future user base is today’s young people, who are social media centric; email is not the preferred communications channel for them.
#3 Marketing info conveyed trough social media outlets such as Twitter and blogs has the potential to be redistributed at a geometric or exponential rate. Email does not; it goes to one person and might be forwarded to one person, etc., a linear process with much a smaller footprint. Feed (tweets, blogs) content can also be indexed by search engines for a some SEO love whereas the engines aren’t about to index email.
Countering my own #3 point somewhat, email can be highly targeted whereas tweets have a life of their own, or none at all.
All said, I think email could be in trouble in the long run because of the power of new marketing outlets and the lack of interest by the younger crowd.
Dave,
Thanks for your input. As to #1, I think the email marketing industry sees social media as a threat, but rather entrench themselves, they are adapting to the social web, and including such things as the ability to share content via social bookmarks, Twitter and Facebook.
Regarding #2, at one time I almost ditched email in favor of RSS feeds. Blogines (and later Google Reader) became the first place I would visit in the mornings. That is until the firehose of information became overwhelming. I rarely if ever go there now, opting instead for aggregated/filtered content to be delivered to my inbox from places like MarketingProgs and SmartBrief.
Even though I agree that it’s not the preferred channel, I think young people do adapt to the use of email once they enter the workforce. Also, it’s worth noting again that social networks like Facebook put a heavy emphasis on the use of email, both from a transactional and marketing standpoint.
Nonetheless, thank you for your viewpoint. I appreciate it very much.
I don’t think though that it is as useful as it used to be. This is probably not so much because of the social media boom but more likely due to the increase in spam.
Paul;
We had a presentation on this at our convention, International Association of Franchisees and Dealers.
The take away most people had was: email newsletters work best when a) the information can be scanned quickly, b) is useful, and c) contains minimal advertising.
Otherwise, it is just another broadcast channel.
Nice, I was searching for something along the lines of this. I was wondering, do you think newsletters are still an effective way of marketing online? Does anybody still use them well and actually get readers?
Appreciate the help!
Nick
If you’re referring to email newsletter, absolutely they are still an effective form of marketing. No question about it.
[...] I use Facebook and email. Facebook, because it is a way to communicate with former co-workers and family. Messages posted on your wall can be read instantaneously and I use email through Facebook. I have gotten away from my personal email for a while because it is so cluttered with junk mail. I go through spells where I am constantly doing both or none at all. My friends and I will call each other to say “Check your email I sent you something” or “did you see the post so-and-so put on Facebook” which will send us running to the computer. It is hard to say if these tools will be around in the future. I am sure someone is working on the next greatest thing. According to Paul Chaney’s article Marketing Profs Daily Fix the future of email marketing is on the rise. He states 4 reasons why email is here to stay: It is 1) a sending platform for vendors; 2) ingrained in our marketing psyche; 3) email and social media can work together; 4) small businesses aren’t using email, but they will. Now these are all reasons for the marketing point of view, but can be applied to the average person also. http://www.mpdailyfix.com/the-future-of-email-marketing/ [...]
I think there’s definitely still scope for email marketing to continue to offer a high ROI – as a “young person” I can safely say that I favour social media over email; to me, they serve two different (but sometimes overlapping) functions and offer different information. I give my consent to receive info and promotions/offers/news from a company or website via email because that’s because I feel it’s the easiest way for me to keep up with the info (for instance, check out the http://www.innocent.co.uk newsletter – it’s great); social media has a lot to offer, but in my opinion is still a swamp of information and I think if anything, companies have to work harder to be “seen” in this medium… because for the average user it’s a mixture of information from personal, professional and commercial sources or connections.
I believe email market is still a viable way to communicate with your potential customers existing ones etc. But I do see a trend toward mobile marketing thought smart phones.
It’s still in the early stages but it won’t be long until is dominates the way email once dit