Heraclitus, email marketing and the future

The Greek fellow who claimed that everything is "in flux" knew his email marketing. But change doesn't mean unpredictability, and David Baker offers us his vision of the email marketing future.

Always good to be aware of what might be around the corner. For most people, the playing field that is the Internet gets steeper and steeper each passing day. I reckon email marketing might split out into tiers (if it hasn't already)...

The top tier are those with the resources and wherewithal to invest strongly in their email marketing efforts. All the fancy software, tactics and certification programs. High input, high output, modern, and intensive. This is the kind of email marketing that nearly everyone will write about.

But most businesses will be in tiers 2, 3 and 4.

Tier 2 are those who master the basics. Keep a tight ship, respect permission, think through their efforts, but don't have the time, skill and/or resources to do too much of the fancy stuff. They'll be fine.

Tier 3 are the small newsletters where the publisher has a very strong bond with the readership. They'll always do well because email is communication. And the power of personality, content, value and relationships will compensate for a lack of technical skills and/or cash.

Tier 4 (the biggest) is everyone else, stumbling along as best they can. Their results will get progressively worse. The challenge for the industry is to move as many people as possible into tiers 1, 2 and 3.

But then what do I know?

More on strategy | Tags: email marketing

Permalink | May 07, 2007 | 0 comment(s)
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