Reports about the demise of email are greatly exaggerated, according to the Email Experience Council, which issued a strong rebuttal to a recent Wall Street Journal article proclaiming that social media is now the major online communications medium.
"Ironically, that story quickly became the most emailed story on the Wall Street Journal website," said David Daniels, a Forrester Research Analyst who commented on behalf of the Council. "Email, however, is not going away any time soon, he said. "We need one in order to gain access to social networks, have an online banking account or order products online."
While the use of email for personal communications in some demographic segments is lower than in others, it underscores that marketers who use it need to be as relevant as possible to capture the user’s attention when they are in their email inbox, he noted.
$47/$1 ROI
Email marketers maintain that, in addition to delivering a reliable and respectable ROI already, traditional email is adapting to the times. Email has as high as $47 ROI per dollar spent, the Interactive Advertising Bureau said in a newly released report [pdf] about the monetization of the medium.
The Wall Street Journal article, though, did identify trends that email marketers need to watch - namely the now immense popularity of social media. In August 2009, according to Nielsen, 276.9 million people used email globally - up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008. Meanwhile the number of users on social-networking and other community sites jumped 31% to 301.5 million people.
Conflicting Trends
Other studies appear to illustrate conflicting or less clear trends. A recent study by the Participatory Marketing Network found that members of Generation Y spend considerable time on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace - but are far more willing to give up these social networks for a week than texting or email.
The study, conducted in partnership with Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’ IDM Lab, found that email (26%) and text messaging (26%) are the activities least likely to be "given up for a week," followed by TV (15%), talking on the phone (11%), visiting social networks (9%), reading magazines (7%) and visiting non-social-network sites (6%).
Another Nielsen study also found, despite an initial hypothesis that increased time on social networks might be taking Americans away from their email, that the heaviest social media users actually use email more, perhaps because of the steady stream of messages that social networks dump into participants’ inboxes.
Splitting the Difference
Email marketers, at least for now, are splitting the difference, developing products and platforms that still deliver traditional email functionality but also incorporate social media and analytics functionality. These, they believe, will help marketers better understand and pinpoint sales prospects.
