The chart below from MarketingSherpa was featured as their "chart of the week" just before Thanksgiving. As I have reflected on the year ahead in recent weeks, I have come to believe this is one of the most improtant charts for those of us in email marketing to consider this year. For that reason, I am calling it my "Chart of the Year". Take a look at the chart and keep reading for my take on why this information is so important.
MarketingSherpa's article focuses on insights about traditional offline marketing tactics contained in this data. More marketers plan to decrease vs. increase direct mail, event marketing, radio, TV, and print advertising budgets. Contrarily, the only two areas where more marketers plan to increase vs. decrease budgets are social media and email to house lists.
Yeah email!!! Right?
Yes and no... at least IMHO.
The good news contained in this chart related to email marketing is twofold:
1) Email to house lists works; email to rented lists stinks: Finally! The permission message about email marketing is settling in. I attribute this in part to a long list of industry leaders who have become more vocal about the value of permission only, respect, and subscribers rule (please excuse the shameless promotion) philosphies. The other thing I suspect is influencing this trend is that email marketers are experiencing first hand the reality that email to rented lists simply does not work very well. Taken together, there is too little upside in email rental world for the headaches it creates.
2) More investment in permission-based email will lead to innovation in 2009: If 48% of marketers plan to invest more in email in 2009, then we can definitely expect to see a lot of innovation this year. For example, some companies have picked up on the trends in social media and started to include features in their email programs such as this 'rate our newsletter' example from Betty Crocker:
Andrew Kordek took this and raised the bar with this dare--ask for feedback and have the guts to post the results. Expect best practices to emerge on this and other new tactics in 2009.
There are downsides as well to the data contained in the chart from MarketingSherpa, which really comes down to one thing:
Increased interest in email to house lists means more competition: If you read the 2009 Marketing Almanac we recently published, you already know I expect competition to increase this year. This is not a year to sit back and let your email program run on autopilot--if you do, then expect your response rates to decline.
In college, many of my classes were graded on a true curve--meaning that about half the class got C's. There were as many A's given out as there were F's. Welcome to Inbox Competition! Average means you get a C. If you fall behind, you risk getting an F (declining list, lower conversion, etc.). Only those who stand out in the crowd will earn an A in email marketing. What does it look like to earn an A? Being you your subscribers Fab 5 list.
Fab 5 lists to check out:
1) Our very own Jeff Rohrs.
2) David Baker, vice president of email solutions at Razorfish.
3) Lisa Harmon, principal and founding partner of Smith-Harmon.
BTW... notice there are no repeats here. There is room to be your subscribers favorite! :)
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