Email Marketing — What’s Old Is New Again
Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 3:03 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine
As I’ve been claiming for some time, perhaps with as much triumph of hope over experience, email deliverability may soon improve.
Microsoft plans to release data this week at the Email Authentication Summit in Chicago to support that position. The company claims that SenderID is already helping to improve delivery and open rates. (Since one is measured — at least in part — via the other, the two rising together is no surprise.)
And despite AOL and Goodmail’s recent public relations snafu, their efforts should help add to what we certainly hope is the swing back of a very heavy pendulum.
And just in time, too, as Jeanniey Mullen on ClickZ helps email marketers decide whether email marketing is an art or a science. Her views are well-reasoned and supported by ample fact; worth reading.
But whatever the answer to that question, the more important point may be that — we hope and believe — email marketing is neither dead art nor obsolete science. At Affiliate Classroom we not only practice email marketing, but have every intention of increasing the size and sophistication of those efforts.
The reasons aren’t far to seek. Email is still enormously popular — used daily by roughly 90% of regular Internet users. It drives a large percentage of sales and does so in a way that — done well — is viewed by readers as helpful, even enthusiastically welcomed.
Email informs and inflames — in the positive sense. It provides access to the latest views and products. It offers mini-reviews in easily digestible time-slices. It states — in an active way — here’s what’s out there, and why we think it’s worth a look. And it can do so in a missive that takes no more than a minute to read.
That kind of useful information and objective opinion density isn’t often found in other media. It should still be part of every affiliate marketer’s toolbox.
As terrific and exciting as many of the Web 2.0 tools are, sometimes the old-fashioned ways still work well. Especially when they’re kept fresh by the latest thinking.
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