The (possible) future of email marketing
As George Orwell might have put it...if you want a picture of the future, imagine spam stamping on a human face - forever. Or so it looked not so long ago.
But things seem eminently brighter these days. The spammers are losing the inbox war, and there are lots more deliverability technologies dying to get implemented in the coming months.
So is the future pink, fluffy and smelling of lavender? Or are we simply heading toward a precipice with a half-empty bottle of Tequila and a blindfold?
Who knows?
But here some thoughts to keep you occupied as you sup your coffee and wait for the results of your latest email campaign. What might the future hold for email marketing...?
1. Spam will be an issue for senders, but not recipients
I get sent hundreds of spam emails each day, but I see maybe three. Filter technology is working. And I haven't found an important email in my spam folder for months. Sorry, but your newsletter or email promotion won't count as truly important for most people.
There's just too much financial interest in defeating spam for it not to happen. And soon. The problem for marketers is avoiding the clever traps and filters laid for spam. And that's probably going to cost you money. So...
2. Email marketers will divide into the haves and the have nots
Think about likely best practices in a few years - conforming to authentication requirements, participation in various reputation-based programs, detailed analysis of email content and structure to meet the varying needs of different email clients and email provider services, on-the-fly behavioral segmentation and email customization, etc. etc.
None of that is going to be cheap. Email marketing will still make companies a lot of money, but only given a reasonable investment of time and resources in the first place.
3. But there will still be room for the little guys
Possibly because some clever company will find out ways of solving the above problems cheaply.
Possibly because low delivery rates will still let you make a profit.
But mostly because some small companies will still think faster than their larger counterparts. Will offer more value in their emails. And, above all, will talk with the real human voice which resonates best with recipients and that many larger marketing behemoths simply can't cope with or replicate.
4. Email may merge with other forms of online communication
Emails may be replaced with "messages." We can't keep on adding new communication channels and expect people to cope - we already have landlines, fax, mobile phones, email, IM, chat and more acronyms on their way.
At some point aggregation has to occur, physically and strategically.
Physically with tools that simply accepts messages from all sorts of delivery vehicles and presents them to the recipient in a single format they prefer.
Strategically, we will not think of email as a standalone message vehicle, but look at our marketing from a generic viewpoint. How best to get the right message to the right person at the right time in the right place? How it gets there is flexible. The delivery mechanism may end up fairly irrelevant and be handled automatically by our marketing tools.
5. Email clients will get clever
How about email clients that notice you never read the Acme Shoes newsletter and ask you if you want to be unsubscribed?
Or organize your incoming email not by time of delivery, but by priority (based on your previous email reading habits.) So the newsletters you always read are sitting at the top of the pile when you come back from a business trip.
6. Email service providers will get more sophisticated and integrated
Given the complications involved in email marketing at the top tier level, we'll get top tier services to address the problem. Total management solutions that are almost in place today, integrating all of the following in one handy package...
- email list management and hosting
- deliverability, authentication and reputation services
- metrics, response and website analytics
- reporting and strategic evaluation
- keeping the photocopier topped up with paper.
7. Segmentation and customization will get very cool
As part of the move to integrated, holistic approaches to marketing and messaging, the content and timing of outgoing email (or whatever it will be called) to individual recipients will be handled automatically on a case-by-case basis, using:
- trigger events (you booked a pedicure with us a month ago - it's probably time to get those feet looked at again)
- tracking of click, browsing and purchase behaviors (you were sorely tempted by that new pair of trainers on our website 10 minutes ago, but couldn't quite bring yourself to buy - would a 5% discount help?)
- cross-channel analysis of how you like to shop (you buy an average $65 worth of goods every Friday in our brick and mortar store. Here's a printable coupon for $10 off if you spend over $100)
Much of this is already happening.
8. And finally...
England will win soccer's world cup in 2010, and do so without using any form of email marketing whatsoever. Proving that email marketing is, after all, just business, and not life.
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