Thinking Outside the Inbox
January 28th, 2009 by Matthew Parente- Teens: High school students between 15 and 17 years old.
- College students: Full-time students, primarily 18-24 years old.
- Young homemakers: Females, between the ages of 18 and 34, who consider “homemaker” as their primary occupation.
- Wired professionals: College educated, 18- to 34-years-olds, no kids, employed or self-employed, income more than $35,000 annually.
- Established professionals: Professionals employed full-time, age 35 or older, with an annual household income greater than $75,000 per year.
- Retired: Retired persons, primarily 55 years old or older.
Their findings did uncover some expected results, such as the different groups had varying attitudes about the “appropriate” use of email, text messaging, social networks, and other direct marketing. But, email is still king, at least in the world of marketing. Email had more influence on online purchasing than any other medium, even among teens, who were the least likely group (relatively) to use email on a regular basis. There are plenty of great observations from this article and I highly recommend that you read the entirety of it.
But this brings up an interesting discussion: What is email marketing? Is it strictly email as we know it? Or can it be something more, like texting, RSS feeds, or maybe even downloadable Web applications, like the Southwest Airlines “ding” messenger that lets you know when there’s a special to a city you’ve indicated interest in?
Devices like BlackBerries have helped blur the line; one could argue that there’s a subtle difference between a text message and receiving an email on such devices. But I want to know what you think: how do you define email marketing? It is something that has to be delivered to an “inbox?” Is it defined by the technology, the media, or something else?
February 1st, 2009 at 9:48 am
Matt, I agree that with devices like the Blackberry and iPhone, we often times substitute them just due to the ease of sending email through these devices. I know many people who feel they don’t need text messaging because of this and interact just via email.
I think there’s a difference with respect to marketing though, and email marketing in my opinion hasn’t adjusted to mobile devices and the on the go customer yet. Text messaging is a very efficient way to quickly communicate with these users and we know that the users on are mobile, so we can target the call to action to support this.
For emails on phones, the messages are still long and over-formatted, the images are large and may take awhile to load, and the formatting isn’t viewable often. Plus the links and incentives for email marketing often take you to sites that aren’t viewable on the device or you can’t complete the incentive. All of these effect a campaign because a qualified lead may get frustrated and not follow through the campaign as they would if they opened the offer at the desktop.
In order to make email campaigns effective, I think it’s important to understand the recipients email preferences and adjust the messaging you provide to mobile clients. At a minimum I recommend that a plain text email is available to recipients, and that it links through to a mobile ready landing page to drive the branded call to action.
February 1st, 2009 at 10:07 am
Doug, great comments and thanks for participating in the conversation. I agree, the medium for the message MUST be accounted for. While there’s some subtlety between email and texting, in the end, it’s not much different than taking a TV commercial and repurposing it for radio. You have to address and modify the message for the specific media the person is using. One size does not fit all. However, I’m curious to know how you’d classify it? Would a text message count as a part of an email marketing effort? How do we classify email marketing? Is it any electronic form of communication that is sent to a specific location (e.g., RSS)?