I joined the discussion on
Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian’s blog quite late, but since I gave it some thought, I decided to share my response with you.
In mid November last year Internet infopreneur, author and social entrepreneur Dr. Mani published a list with his
predictions about what’s IN and what’s OUT in 2010 (↑).
The first item on his list:
Email Is OUT, Social Media Is IN
I am buying the second part of his statement immediately, but “Email OUT?”
I had to think about it a couple of seconds longer than usual, since a couple of respectable experts like
Chris Brogan (↑),
Warren Whitlock (↑), and
Willie Crawford (↑) already had left comments on
Dr. Mani’s blog post.
Here is what I have replied with.
I don’t think email is OUT in 2010.
I rather would say, we have to use and nurture email marketing differently than in the past.
A strong email list is still an asset, like your website. I hope you have purchased your own domain.
Who owns — and most importantly who has jurisdiction so to speak over — your social media profile?
The inherent benefit of email is it’s independence from any given email marketing service provider on the sender side. Maybe the Google Wave protocol will push email type communication into this century and at a same time allow a merger with social media. I am looking forward to it. Maybe in 2011, 2012.
You would be crazy to stop
building an email list. But on the same token you would be crazy not building your social media presence.
In case you are sitting on the fence and don’t know whether you should throw the topic email marketing into the IN or the OUT bucket, let us revisit why businesses and marketers are complaining.
You hear two main reasons:
- Low open and response rates resulting in less sales.
- Email deliverability problems.
Now ask yourself or your team a couple of questions and reevaluate the response rate issue. For sure you will find a couple of areas where you can improve.
- Is my aging email list outgrowing my content, my offers?
- Do my offers mature in-sync with my subscribers?
- Am I (trying to) milk my members or am I graduating them?
- Does my offer evolve over time and stay fresh and state-of-the-art that it appeals to new subscribers as well.
- And now probably the most important question:
Am I sending brochures, pitches,… or am I building a relationship with that person who reads my email message?
(Hint: Even outside of internet marketing consumers already can smell automated follow-up messages.)
One kind of email marketing campaigns did especially well in 2009. They are called
customer reactivation campaigns.
Maybe your email marketing activities need that sort of a botox treatment. (LoL)
Another observation in 2009 was that
“mailing dead trees” in the form of letters and postcards can outperform internet classics like PPC, email, or banners even in these days and age. I just mention that to counter the many experts who have proclaimed direct mail will be dead in a couple of years. That was,… well, a couple of years ago. (Another LoL)
Lots of issues to think about, aren’t they.
Don’t dump your opt-in box yet.
I hope you have any.
Any comments?
What do you think?
Yours
John W. Furst
http://blog.fcon21.biz/comment.php?type=trackback&entry_id=313
I thought you will like this little video. Before I have looked into that I wanted to write a post about email marketing instead, but I procrastinated. Did it every happen to you? I am sure it did. If you are not quite convinced yet, watch the video, a
Tracked: Feb 25, 07:26
Okay, here is the post I procrastinated for a long, l o o o … o o n g time. Please, don’t ask me, why I finally got moving and finished it today. It’s certainly not the sunshine and beach w
Tracked: Mar 24, 02:13