‘Is Email Marketing Really Dead?’ – Charlie Page’s Latest Article
Charlie Page’s latest ‘Real World Tactics eZine’ article titled “Is Email Marketing Really Dead?” is reprinted here. [Article Reprint]
Charlie Page’s latest ‘Real World Tactics eZine’ article is reprinted here.
Is Email Marketing Really Dead?
Funny things happen in spring. Flowers bloom. College students go on spring break. Gas prices go up. Internet marketers hype their newest ideas. It is indeed a crazy time.
The most recent example of Internet marketing- mania has to do with what you have been hearing (or will soon hear) about email marketing being dead.
“The sky is falling” they proclaim – you will never get your email message delivered. If you do get it delivered it won’t get read. If it does get read it won’t get acted on!
Lions and tigers and bears … oh my!
My friend, email marketing is alive and very well. And these shameless marketers know that all too well.
How can I say that? There are several ways.
First, because they use email to deliver their “email is dead” message!
Ironic, isn’t it? They contact ezine publishers looking for “joint ventures” (a modern way to say “I’m too cheap to buy an ad”) and want the message to go out immediately. Of course, they will pay a handsome commission when their scare tactics result in the sale of their latest “this is going to replace email” widget.
They contact list owners like me with the same pitch. And you know already all too well that they ‘share’ their lists with each other, cross-promoting with the fervor of an evangelist arriving on a new and distant shore.
But these marketers fail to face one incontrovertible fact. Email marketing is alive and well. In fact, it’s better than ever!
But saying that is not new and they thrive on the intoxicating elixir of being able to proclaim that they have the new thing on the block. Only their mind could conceive the genius of the latest desktop reader or new way to use RSS or new and shiny toolbar for your browser. Only they will be honest enough to tell you what the world already knows … email marketing is dead!
Of course, they will use email to tell you that.
But what you should know (what you MUST know in order to immunize yourself from their slick sales pitch) and another compelling reason I have to believe that the latest round of warnings about the death of email marketing is false is this … it’s all been tried before.
The late and truly great Corey Rudl (honestly the best online salesman I ever knew) couldn’t make a desktop delivery product work. Sure, they still sell it at the Internet Marketing Center, but you will notice on a visit to their site that they push their email newsletter first.
In case you haven’t visited the site lately, you should know that Derek Gehl is doing wonderful things. Corey’s widow and the IMC staff were truly blessed to have Derek step in and fill what were very large shoes indeed.
I wonder why? Because email marketing works!
Other marketers who have tried selling the idea of desktop delivery or some toolbar notification system for messages would fill an Internet marketing ‘who’s who’. The list is honestly too long to share here.
But what can be shared is the pattern. Here is what the marketers will tell you.
1. Email is dead 2. You need my product if you want to survive 3. You must convert your existing list to this new technology … now! 4. More people respond using desktop delivery than email.
Now let me be 100% clear … ALL of this is un-provable and, in my opinion, an outright manipulation to scare beginning marketers into buying something.
You will be able to avoid this trap by remembering one fact … email marketing is alive and well. Just look at these facts.
* Fortune 500 companies are using email more than ever. * Local businesses now use email to deliver coupons. * Churches use it to stay connected to their congregants. * Internet marketers use it to sell things. * Ezine publishers like me use it to deliver articles.
Candidly, the list goes on and on. Email marketing works, and is alive and well.
If it seems to you that I’m more passionate about this topic (and my tone is a bit snippy) it’s because I have seen some very good people hurt by the “email is dead” scare.
Once in 2002, and again in 2004, I saw perfectly profitable online businesses completely destroyed by the requirement that people who were on the mailing list of these businesses reconfirm their intentions or download some desktop reader.
In one case I begged a publisher to not send the infamous “this is my last email!” message to his list only to see him lose his entire business because less than 5% of his list was willing to download a desktop device in order to receive his ezine.
Totally believing the lie that email marketing was dead, this man is no longer publishing and, to the best of my knowledge, no longer working online. That’s very sad because so many try to make money online and fail, where this man was succeeding but gave it all away because he believed a lie.
So forgive me if I seem worked up, and forgive me too if it seems as though I dislike these marketers. And please know that it is not them but rather the potential disruption they bring that I find hard to stomach.
Another piece of hype being ballyhooed just now is that you must have a “double opt-in” mailing list in order to survive. To which I say … bunk.
Just recently I surveyed the top 50 Internet marketers in the world on this. I went to their websites to see what they were selling, how they were selling it and if their list was single or double opt-in.
Want to know the results? About three of them use double (or verified) opt-in. The rest did not ask you to confirm your intentions, make you fill out yet another form or bribe you in order to get you to take yet another action. They just sent the information requested and made sure there was a clean and obvious way to stop receiving their emails.
Simple, and incredibly effective.
Sure, with single opt-in you’ll need to monitor signups more closely and take out obviously bad addresses. But that beats by far having a situation where a majority of people who want your message don’t get it because they miss, or misunderstand, the verification message.
To be sure, email marketing has faced its share of challenges. We all get too much spam, and that makes for too much noise and that means our marketing must be good.
We must offer products that people want. We must write in a persuasive way. We must listen to what customers (and potential customers) say.
All of which might be just a bit more than some marketers want to do. So instead they try to scare and cajole you into something you don’t need, and something that might cause you to gut your list, which could bring you very real financial harm.
Well, I say don’t let them. Email marketing is alive and very well. Spend your time learning how to use it, and how to master the art of email marketing, and you will rise far above what you might think now is possible.
The email marketing success stories are legion. I hope you become the next one!
About the Author
Charlie Page helps people succeed in their Internet businesses. Visit Charlie at http://www.RealWorldTactics.com
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*IMNewswatch would like to thank Charlie Page for granting permission to reprint this latest article.
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