THINKing

Stop The Funeral

Email is not dead, no matter what you have heard from other sources. So, let’s stop the funeral right now. I was talking about this last night with a friend whose brother is interested in starting an email program for his small business. My advice: start the program from a customer retention perspective. More on this in a moment.

This much maligned business communication tool has its merits, even if it has been misused by misdirected and even malicious marketers. Just because a bunch of spammers are clogging in-boxes everywhere doesn’t serve as a death knell for this solid business tool.

Technology’s early adopters typically are the ones spouting this nonsense. But most of us aren’t early adopters and are comfortable with what we have. What is out there to replace email? Well, there is RSS and XML. But – as Christopher Knight points out -

RSS and XML do not pass “does my mother or father understand how to use it” test. Email passed the test, even though they needed my help setting up spam filters.

IM (instant messaging) and social media platforms like Twitter also offer some solid options to email but they too have drawbacks. And let me ask you, if email is so dead, why is it such an integral part of communication strategies for Twitter (direct messaging) and blogs (alerting readers of new content)?

What really should be dead is email customer acquisition marketing. Unless a contact has signed up to receive information from you, do not send an email trying to gain his business. I mean it. Don’t make me come over there and stop you.

Today, I believe, email is a customer retention tool. All of the email programs we run here at My Creative Team are based on customer retention strategies. For instance, we implement a weekly newsletter program for Carolinas AGC that is a superb member communication tool. It also is an important piece of their customer retention strategy because it is available exclusively to members.

Email also can be a great public relations and brand building tool. I believe the My Creative Team newsletter, Think, accomplishes that for us. I would love to have you become a subscriber. Think is a good content marketing tool as well, giving us the opportunity to let readers know about what is happening at our blog, and of any new white papers we have written or new programs we have implemented for our Fortune 1000 clients.

So, let’s agree that email is not dead and that it can be used responsibly by everyone, including marketers. If you’d like some excellent advice on responsible use of email, Seth Godin provides an email checklist that offers common sense tips.

Happy emailing.

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• Stay Strategic
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