The third wave of email marketing: prepare now

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on August 06, 2007

In the beginning anyone could send out a bit of text and an offer and expect results. Then spam got out of hand and like the loudmouthed drunk at the party, it spoiled the fun for everyone.

So professional marketers got smarter. People paid attention to a fairly clear set of basic best practices to keep email results buzzing along.

Now email is marching into new territory. I feel like I'm at the top of one of those theme park water slides just as the log boat starts to protrude over the edge. A wild ride awaits...perhaps.

We have the challenge of new technologies that compete with, but also complement, email, and certainly change the way it's used. And we have a second challenge: the rise of mobile email.

Just today, Jeanniey Mullen predicts mobile devices are where future email is most likely to be displayed (and suggests a couple of ways we might cope.)

So how do you prepare for those challenges? Shut your eyes and hope you brought a change of t-shirt?

Well, most of us still need to work on the basics. Here's another relevant article today: Wendy Roth stresses the importance of respecting your subscribers with your opt-in and privacy practices.

But now is also the time for email marketing to emerge from its cave. Experts have always urged marketers to view email in terms of its wider contribution to other marketing and sales channels.

Before it was a mainly a matter of properly valuing email so it gets the right resources. Now it's a matter of good business.

The one constant running through recent changes in technologies and user habits is integration.

New webmail platforms include chat functions and feed readers. New smartphones let you do everything except make the tea (and I daresay the next iPhone will do that.)

So maybe flexibility is the simple answer.

There will long be a place for the traditional standalone email campaign where you ask, "How can I boost my email sales?"

But the future perhaps lies with those who look at the bigger picture and ask, "How can I boost my sales using email?"

It's a subtle, but important difference.

Tags: email marketing, mobile email, wireless email, integrated marketing

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | 0 comment(s) - add yours!
Get posts like this: as an RSS feed | as a biweekly newsletter

Sign-up for the Email Marketing Reports NEWSLETTER
Twice a month, free, packed with email marketing advice and all the posts from this blog.

0 Comments: