sales and marketing

The Next Evolution of E-mail Marketing
By Virginia Weinstein | Partner Channel Magazine


Stop and think for a moment. Do you remember your first e-mail address? I do. It was back in 1994 as I was a freshman entering Virginia Tech. Over the past 16 years, I have had multiple personal and professional e-mail accounts. Today I have four active e-mail accounts. Back in 1994, I would never imagine checking my e-mail on my phone or using it for marketing. E-mail is not just a marketing vehicle; it has become a way of life. We have become addicted to the digital lifestyle. We want to know what is happening. We want to be connected. How often do you check your e-mail on your phone? What is the first thing you do when you get to work? More than 50 million people check e-mail five times by 11:30 a.m., and 60 percent of those people check it on their mobile devices.


The Wall Street Journal wrote an article in October 2009 stating that e-mail is dead because of the rapid growth of social media. Ironically, on the day it was published, it was the top article “e-mailed” from The Wall Street Journal’s Web site. E-mail is alive and well. E-mail matters, but not the way it used to. Today it has a different purpose and a different use. As we begin the next evolution in e-mail marketing, you must prepare yourself and your company’s marketing strategy to change with it.

E-mail is here to stay. Prepare your inbox for the future.

When we send out business e-mail messages, our audience is divided into four categories.

1. “The Almost Untouchables:” These are the unsubscribers, typically less than 1 percent of your audience. Historically we have usually ignored these people. After they unsubscribe to our monthly newsletter, we give up on them and note to ourselves, “they don’t like my message, so I’ll stop talking to them”. In the new evolution of e-mail marketing, these people have the potential to damage your brand. They feel your message isn’t relevant or your company is communicating with them too frequently. Your job as a marketer is to re-engage them. Maybe they do like your brand; they just don’t want you in their inbox. They need to be contacted by another means such as direct mail or via social media.

2. “The Chatty Cathys:” Social influencers have a low response rate but a high reach. In the past, we would have removed these people from our distribution list because they weren’t responding. They don’t always open our newsletter and click on the articles. These people are busy and probably won’t purchase from you. However, they will tweet about your products and promotions. They will use word-of-mouth marketing to talk to their clients about your company and services. Social influencers are very busy people and don’t have time to read your newsletter in detail, but they share your message with others, increasing your return on investment (ROI) on your e-mail campaigns.

3. “Future Meal Tickets:” These folks make up 80 percent of your list. These people have opened at least one e-mail out of the last three. They want to be (as in wanna-be’s) involved in your brand but aren’t sure how. They raised their hands saying “market to me.” They took the time to give you their e-mail addresses, and want to get involved; it just might be the wrong time. This is why it is so critical to use a nurture marketing campaign such as a monthly newsletter to be in front of them month after month. If you have inactive wanna-be’s, send them an invitation for feedback on your newsletter and in return offer something for their time

4. “The Junkies:” These people are addicted to your products and services. They buy from you, and you can measure a dollar amount from them. You receive front-end revenue, but this is only the short term. Eventually they won’t spend any more money with you because they have been tapped out on your product. They are limited in the total revenue they give your company.

In the past we typically did e-mail messaging to the above audiences when there was interest, consideration, or intent to buy. We still need to do that, but we need to nurture prospects and customers along the way. Use e-mail marketing and social media through all touch points: awareness, interest, consideration, intent to buy, purchase, usage, and cross sell/upsell. That means you need to be e-mailing both prospects and customers.

Creativity takes a new approach with e-mail marketing. In the past, we would say that the call to action needs to be at the top. Those old school rules are going to the wayside as we introduce video and RSS feeds into our e-mail marketing. Today good content/message wins over good creative design.

People want a message that is more engaging. Your e-mail needs to act more like a landing page or work like an application on an iPhone. People are more likely to use social media to forward your message when it has a link on the landing page to a video and not just e-mail text. People don’t go to the web and search e-mail; they search video. If you don’t integrate your e-mail efforts with social media channels in 2010, your results could be at risk.

People will save an e-mail if it contains value for them. E-mail longs for an actionable “contact me at a later date.” Unlike telemarketing, where you can say “call me back in a month”, when you review your inbox, each message stares at you – file it or delete it.

When you sit down to consider your plans for 2010, remember this:

1. Getting a solid commitment to opt-in messaging is key. E-mail is about building relationships. Spammers couldn’t care less if you asked to receive their e-mail. Your e-mail results will work better if you follow permission-based e-mail marketing. For more ways on how to build a good opt-in list, visit www.thepartnermarketinggroup.com under the Consultants’ Corner.

2. Get back to the basics. I can talk about the future of e-mail marketing, but if you don’t have monthly e-mail communication with your audience or have a 10 percent open rate, adding video or putting a message on Twitter isn’t going to help. Clearly, you need to find out why you only have a 10 percent open rate and fix your current strategy. Did you send to your opt-in list? Do you send e-mail regularly? Did it provide value to them or just talk about you, Microsoft, your company, and you?

3. Have an e-mail calendar planned. Do you have a 2010 e-mail calendar? (If you don’t, you can download one at http://www.thepartnermarketinggroup.com/consultants-corner-downloads.php.) If you said yes, congratulations – you are one of the few. Just like other marketing efforts, you should have a 2010 e-mail calendar noting messages you intend to communicate with your prospect and customer base throughout the year. The strategy and vision you put on the front end will help drive the vision through the organization the rest of the year. If you are feeling overwhelmed, just plan out the next three months.

4. Get social with e-mail. Social media isn’t going away, so you should consider how you can integrate your e-mail marketing with it. It doesn’t have to be leveraged in every communication – but determining and testing how social media can benefit your business is something to think about.eight than any impersonal ad campaign can muster.

As we enter a new decade, we need to rethink everything and reinvent. Author Seth Godin gave this prediction on his blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com):
“90% of your sales will come from word-of-mouth or digital promotion by 2011. How do you change what you’re doing today to be ready for that?”

My prediction: the next 18 months will introduce significant changes on how you deliver your message, and e-mail marketing is about to get better. I bet that during the fourth quarter of this year, we will be messaging differently than we do now. So get ready, get set, and begin with the next evolution of e-mail marketing. Make it revolutionary: grab your prospects and customers like never before.