Email marketing not dead yet

If Forrester research is to be believe, email marketing is feeling better. In fact, it seems email marketing is more effective than ever.

Researchers at Forrester have found that attitudes to emails from brands are actually becoming more positive, despite the fact that most people tend to write them off as annoying “spam.”

Business Insider attributes much of this change to the ubiquitous smartphone. I do think changes in online behavior and how much easier it is to check mail contributes to people not minding as much of the “spam.” Why not check your mail and read that newest offer from your favorite daily deals when you’re stuck in line at the coffee shop or grocery store?
BI did give another reason for this change in consumer behavior.

It might also be because, over time, marketers have gotten their act together. The spam you’re receiving is probably more highly targeted and relevant than before, and you probably requested it from your favorite companies.

Some marketers are still pretty bad about email and their marketing strategy. But there are a lot of marketers who are finally getting their act together and investing in their marketing programs and working with their customers to send the right offers at the right time.
Good email marketing drives revenue.

Marketing pet peeves
Yahoo.com on FCC wireless "do not mail" list

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What better time to advertise pizza specials than at 2:30 pm on a Friday afternoon?
Either my local pizza joint is doing sophisticated tracking (hrmmm… these people often order pizza on the weekend, email on Friday) or I’m just smack dab in the middle of their average demographic.
In either case, advertising pizza on a Friday afternoon strikes me as the epitome of timely, relevant marketing.
Pizza for dinner, anyone?

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The Wall Street Journal reports that some large retailers are scaling back their email marketing. Benefits of sending less mail include higher open rates, lower unsubscribe rates and an increase in sales.

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Court rules blogger is not a journalist

Last week a federal judge ruled a blogger, Crystal Cox, was not a journalist and not subject to first amendment protections. I haven’t been following the case very closely, but was a little concerned about the precedent and the liability for people like me who blog.
Reading some of the articles on the case, though, I’m less worried. This isn’t a blogger making some statements. Instead, Ms. Cox acted more like a stalker and harasser than a reporter. The judge even concluded that had she been granted protection as a journalist it was unlikely she could prevail as there was little factual basis for her statements.
Others have done better summaries of the case and the effect and I encourage everyone to read them.
Seattle Weekly
New York Times
Ars Technica
Forbes

I also discourage folks from applying this ruling to all bloggers. It’s not clear she was doing anything journalistic. I did find it interesting that some of her techniques to ruin the lawyer’s search results were defined as Search Engine Optimization. I’ve long thought SEO was akin to spam: say something often enough in enough places and you start to dominate the conversation. Not because you have anything useful to say, but because no one can get an idea in otherwise.

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