While looking at a few messages from the various Yahoo Groups I belong to, I found a comment from an entrepreneur who is experiencing a low open rate with an email marketing campaign.  She believed that spam might be contributing to this.   I had some other thoughts that led me to question whether or not  e-mail marketing is dead or evolving.   Here is how I responded to her message:

Hi,

I am a long time user of email campaigns and  I, too, have run into the problem of having a small percentage of recipients open my emails.   I think spam may have a lot to do with this, but here are my thoughts on what else might be happening:

• We are in an age of information overload.   Even after you get permission from the customer, another email in their inbox can seem overwhelming.  I certainly feel this way about the many e-newsletters/email blasts I have subscribed to over the years.

• There has been a seismic shift from advertising to the masses to focusing on niche markets. If your email reaches someone who is marginally, or even somewhat, interested in your business (we pick up a lot of these folks at trade shows and big events), you might be competing against a business that has reached this customer via a niche market.

• As a result of niche marketing, consumers have more options to choose from to receive information that matter to them the most.  Also, advances in technology make it easier for them to retrieve information on their time.  An email showing up in their inbox at 3:00 PM may not be the time they want to hear from you.  And with so many emails going back and forth, they may forget to open yours later.

• The sphere of influence has shifted from traditional institutions to peer-generated mediums such as Digg, Epinions, and even Ebay.  Consumers can now read real-time product reviews, comparison shop online, and get recommendations from their friends, all on their time.  They are becoming much more informed and in control of the sales process.

• Marketing is becoming more humanized, more participatory, and much more conversational.   Monolithic forms of marketing (e-newsletters, standard websites, and e-mail auto responders) are beginning to lose their appeal.

As we enter into an emerging relationship economy where conversations are key and consumers have more options and much more control over the sales process, the successful marketer will be the one who uses two-way communication mediums (blogs, forums, and social networking sites) to communicate with their customers.

Here are three other recommendations for marketing in 2008 and in the next decade:

1.  Find a subset or niche of consumers within your target market and focus on developing a relationship with them.

2.  Enable your most enthusiastic customers to evangelize your business, and give them the tools to do so.

3. Engage your target market in conversations rather than shouting or pitching a message.

These three things can be accomplished very effectively with social media marketing.

Although I still use email campaigns to reach my customers, I have integrated the use of social technologies into an overall marketing strategy.

Business blogging is a social media marketing strategy that has worked really well for me.  Here is why:

• I always receive great questions and comments in response to my e-mail blasts and e-newsletters, but it is hard to respond back and not everyone can see my responses.   With a blog, I can respond to questions and comments and have all of my customers see my responses. This helps to create a community around my business, which is a really important in our emerging relationship economy.

• All of the content on my blog is indexed by search engines, so not only do I reach my client base, the potential to reach more people increases exponentially.  Why have an article that took me hours to write sit in a database when it can be indexed by search engines and work for me months and years from now?

• My customers and readers can subscribe to my blog’s updates via email by using a RSS feed.  They can also use a feed aggregator if they are concerned about not receiving an update because of spam.

When comparing the cost of email campaigns to communicating with a blog, I think you get the best bang for your buck with using social technologies to market your business.  Bottom line:  you can reach more people and develop strong relationships along the way.

What is your opinion?  Is email marketing dead or evolving?

Want to read more about this topic?  Visit dmiracle.com for another conversation.

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