My feeling is that email marketing is losing its relevancy for many, many people. It’s dying a slow and painful death and, despite various organisations applying a band-aid to the gaping wound (in the form of spam control), it’s on its last legs.
I read some research recently (can’t recall the specifics) that cited 72% of people saying that email was now a hindrance. And fair enough too.
Viruses, scams and spam are taking a toll
Viruses, scams, Viagra offers, Nigerian letters, porn, endless spam… of the 200 or so emails I received today, I’d guess a good 160 of them were emails that fall within the above categories.
I’m a pretty sophisticated net user and know the tricks of the spammers and scammers. But spare a thought for the consumer who isn’t so web-savvy. There is simply no trust left for email.
Email as a viable marketing method is just about dead. And so starts the slow and steady decline of email as a favoured method of communication.
The feeling gets confirmed
2 clients. Both very smart business people.
- Just last week he removed his web site and closed his email address down because of his fear of email borne viruses. Our education regarding virus protection, etc wasn’t enough to convince him that the benefits of web access outweighed the negatives.
- The client shut down his main email address because of the deluge of viruses and porn/Viagra offers.
When smart clients – I’d assess them as early adapters – start closing down their email access then I know it’s a wider problem.
It’s strength is killing it
The spammers are killing email and there doesn’t seem to be anything anyone can do about it. It’s main asset, that of cheap use, is the very thing killing it. Why not send 1,000,000 email messages a day when just a couple of sales yields a profit?
These guys aren’t here for the long term. They want profits and they want them now. Choking an entire communication network isn’t their problem.
Most people prefer mail to email for the delivery of information
According to research completed here in Australia by Taylor Nelson Sofres found that:
- personally addressed mail is preferred for the delivery of advertising and promotional material (30%). Only 8% want that information via email
- mail was preferred for the delivery of loyalty information (a whopping 71%) – just 9% for email
- 62% of people preferred mail for membership newsletters – email was preferred by a low 12%
There’s a lot more information in the report, but suffice to say email is not looking healthy. (Should mention that the survey was commissioned by Australia Post. Not suggesting that this influenced the findings of course, but may be relevant information for you to know when analysing the statistics).
Cheap and easy no longer a positive
Email is cheap. Email is easy to send.
They used to be positives. Now they seem to be negatives.
Cheers
