Will email save the world in 2009?

Here comes 2009 - a year in which we will all be under pressure, people and businesses alike. Businesses in particular, mainly retailers have already felt the squeeze. Some have gone under, and things will only get worse.

Each day, emails are reaching my computer from increasingly desperate retailers, offering more and more incentives to buy from them, at increasingly cheap prices. Stock must be shifted.
So will email save these retailers? Yes, it is cheaper, faster and more direct. It thus offers a very effective medium to communicate with past and present customers.

But that is not enough. It will be the message sent that decides whether the email marketing campaign works. It is a concept that is still not understood by most companies using email marketing.

To receive an email on Monday offering you an LCD TV at $X, followed by another 2 days later offering the same product even cheaper will not work. That's the tone of many messages arriving right now. It smacks of despair.

So yes, email could offer a lifeline to some retailers, but it needs to be planned, strategised, tailored to the medium and smart!