We can't run before we can walk

I associate the word "thoughtful" with David Baker's articles. They're always a demanding and challenging read for me (in the positive sense.)

David's latest article asks email folk to take a leaf out of search marketing's book. That leaf being to think outside the channel. To consider how email interacts with other elements of the business, particularly its role in influencing customer relationships and brand building.

Admirable thoughts. But search marketers have advantages in this context.

First, it is easier to "think outside the channel" when your tasks are, by definition, intimately associated with website operations in a way that email is not.

Second, paid search and SEO do not have a respect problem. Nobody rolls their eyes when you want to talk about the role of search marketing.

Third, advanced search marketing is as complex as advanced email marketing. But basic search marketing is far easier than basic email marketing. People understand it.

Search marketing works within a fairly simple and clear framework. The MSN, Yahoo, and Google search engines and the associated paid search services pretty much define the search marketing world. And it is relatively easy to set up a successful paid search campaign.

Fourth, everyone in an organization is "sending email" and for numerous different reasons. Search marketing is normally in the hands of the competent few, making internal communication and coordination far easier.

Now, David would probably tell me that presenting problems is no good without offering solutions. But I'll leave that to others who are wiser and more experienced than me.

However...getting broader organizational interest in the wider role of email as a driver of brand/customer experiences is important, but not the first step. It has to be preceded by other efforts which pick away at email's perceived weaknesses in this context. For example:

• Centralize email activities in the organization so that you have the expertise and oversight to properly represent, exploit and coordinate the channel. This is a topic addressed yesterday by Spencer Kollas, and previously by others.
• Demonstrate the value of email in a way that's easy to understand, thus gaining the recognition that makes others in the organization willing to consider email when developing integrated marketing approaches.
• Simplify the practice of email marketing basics, so more folk can do it and understand it. This is where activities like the push for common rendering standards among webmail services and email software are so useful. And where certification may play an important role if it proves a viable means of avoiding the complexities of deliverability.
  

Which is not to say that you far-thinking marketers can't get on right away with seeing email as more than just a series of discrete sales promotions. But address the weaknesses, and integration follows.

Tags: email marketing, integrated marketing, email strategy

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