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All About Email - The Last Word in Email Publishing

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Email and the hairline economy

Anyone who denies that we are in a recession probably still thinks there were nuclear weapons all over Iraq. Never before have we seen debt levels like this, in both business and consumer sectors. Oil prices will never fall significantly. Inflation is here to stay. Property prices will continue to fall.

In fact, it may well be that we all have to make significant changes to our lives and businesses. No bad thing, perhaps. This could be the wake-up call that we need.

So what does it mean for email? Well, I think it represents an opportunity – for email to mature as a medium in NZ, and for many businesses and organisations to undergo a long overdue traditional media cost cutting exercise, and dramatically improve their communications impact and efficiency into the bargain.

I predict that in 12 months time the volume of legitimate commercial email in NZ will double. I also predict that unsubscribes will rise dramatically as recipients make more aggressive reading decisions based on impact, content, presentation and relevancy.

Smart email marketers will increase segmentation, email design will change considerably to increase initial impact and allow for mobile view, writing for email will become a highly valued skill, and 90% of businesses and organisations sending email will continue to skimp on costs and trust their own in house knowledge, leading to even higher unsubscribe rates and lack of return on investment.

The 10% who value, and employ skilled email agencies, will beat the recession, and emerge all the stronger.

You heard it here first.....

Thursday, July 3, 2008

A Silly Bank

A month overseas gives you a nice clear head. A fresh perspective. Even a new tolerance of those things which were threatening to make you explode because you needed that holiday so much.
So when I got back and surveyed my inbox, even though there were over 1000 emails to deal with of which at least 30% were spam (thank you our wonderful anti-spam laws for keeping it below 50%) I did not mind.

Jet lag is a funny thing. For the first three night I found myself at my desk by 3.00 am. Actually, it’s a great time of day to work.

Anyway, as I was sitting there, happily considering opportunities to enhance my length, or give my bank account details to a range of generous Nigerians, I was surprised to receive a marketing email from my bank. At 3.00 am. At first I assumed it was a con, some spammer stealing their identity, but closer inspection revealed it to be the real thing. I won’t tell you which bank it was, except to say I consider them A Silly Bank. The same bank, by coincidence, that recently told me they did not need an email agency to show them the best way to use email to market their services, as they had plenty of expertise in-house.

I have to say, just for a few moments, it swept away all the good from my break, and made me mad. Not just because they should have employed our services, but because this sort of irresponsible and ignorant email marketing breeds mistrust amongst the general public.

For email to prosper as a marketing channel, big players need to get it right, and A Silly Bank sending out emails at 3 in the morning is wrong.