Is Email Marketing Dead?
Aug 1st, 2009 | By Kevin | Category: Email MarketingThere are many marketing and business advisors sharing advice on how to grow your business, make more sales, get more clients … I know, because when it comes to Internet Marketing, an area I only ventured into 2-1/2 years ago, I have probably tried most of the ebooks, courses and teleseminars available.
Today I’m posing a question about what I guess could be considered a “tried and true” online marketing method: Email Marketing.
You know, ezines, e-newsletters, permission-based, opt-in email marketing. All of the Internet marketing gurus recommend it, saying “to be successful, you’ve got to build your list.”
I’ve been using Email Marketing consistently for the past 2 years.
In that time …
=> I have seen my opt-in rates bounce around from 9% to 59%.
=> I have tested a squeeze page vs. a standard home page to see which garners the highest opt-in rates (after a year of testing, the jury is STILL out!).
=> I’ve had to do more and more marketing to build my list and it’s still not anywhere near the volume I’d like it to be.
=> I’ve watched my deliverability rates go down, down, down and the spam filters get tighter and tighter.
=> I’ve watched the open rates, for my double-opt-in list (that means my subscribers say they WANT my email) go down consistently from well over 50% to about 20%.
This begs the question … Is Email Marketing Dead?
=> Is there just too much of it out there?
=> Are people overloaded with free information?
=> Are all the spammers ruining it for the legitimate email marketers?
=> Is it time to bury Email Marketing and replace it with RSS, blogs and other forms of information delivery?
To tell you the truth, I don’t know if Email Marketing is dead. My guess is it won’t ever totally go away. But its role may change.
And to be certain it will evolve, as everything on the Internet does. In fact, the only thing you can count on when it comes to Internet marketing is change!
I will continue to increase my online marketing arsenal, using other tactics like blogging and podcasting. After all, when it comes to marketing, what we do know is that the best strategy is to use a marketing mix, both online and offline.
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Originally from Wisconsin, I moved out to Salt Lake City over ten years ago on a six month software development contract. I now have over 15 years in software development, and was introduced to internet marketing back in 2003. During the wild west days, our business focused on content sites for Adsense revenue. As it became harder and harder to keep up with the search engines, our business has evolved, and forced us to focus on building lists and creating products. We now have a list of about 5000 interested in goal setting, and a small internet marketing list of about 500.
yes with the advent of newer more aggressive spam filters the email marketing phenomenon is over..Thank you