Comments on: Is Email Dead, Dying or Just Changing? Facebook says Yes, consumers No.

By: Dave Chaffey

Dave Chaffey — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:59:27 +0000

I agree Dan, I think we already seeing the long-term decline in stable/declining response to email despite more sophisticated targeting being used. Part of this may be overlap in interaction with brands through “social messaging” and email which we would expect to cause a decrease in email response from those who have already interacted through Facebook or Twitter.

I took a look at the full report, but there wasn’t an age break down to back this up.

Dave

By: Dan Croxen-John

Dan Croxen-John — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:41:45 +0000

Hi Dave,

Interesting post, but it did cause me to ponder whether younger people who are also heavy users of social media are likely to cause the slow decline of email effectiveness. This segment of internet users brought up on social media platforms may have lower levels of interest in personal emails, and over time the ROI of emails could suffer.

It’s a shame that the data you present wasn’t broken down by age, as my prediction is that email will go into long term decline within the next 10 years, unless we get a lot smarter about relevance and targeting.

Regards

Dan

By: Mark Brownlow

Mark Brownlow — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:48:38 +0000

There’s also evidence that increased use of social media goes hand in hand with increased use of email. And some claim the smartphone revolution is driving an email revival among students, who were one of the demographics supposedly turned off email.

Dave makes the key point in the title. It’s not about email dying or not dying: it’s about how email is changing through, particularly, the influence of social media.

By: Dave Chaffey

Dave Chaffey — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:19:21 +0000

In reply to Patrick Kelly.

Good that’s useful Patrick – we need to unite to fight misinformation! Integration of email and social is key.

You’re right – the best email strategies have a well thought through communications strategy with defined rules, automated where possible. It’s amazing how little is written about that online in comparison with the barrage of information on social media.

By: Patrick Kelly

Patrick Kelly — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:57:27 +0000

Thanks Dave, excellent information, really useful to share with clients and prospects alike. Generally speaking, our most successful customers have found the right balance of integrating email and social while controlling frequency by either capping or sending emails based on a user’s actions (browsed, purchased, interests, etc).