Say No to Email Marketing

By Kamea Zelisko

The online world moves so fast. It seems like just yesterday we were all tediously setting up our first email account. The next few years seem to be a blur of emails, forwards and constantly cleaning out our inboxes.

My oh my, how things have changed.

Email quickly moved on to instant messaging platforms, and today online communication has become quick and efficient with an abundance of ways to communicate with people (mainly through various social media utilities).

As the old adage goes, “Out with the old and in with the new.”

Unfortunately, the old is now email, at least as far as online marketing goes.

I read an article online the other day where they referred to it as “inbox fear.” You may not have heard that term before, but I’m sure you get its meaning: It’s the fear you get when you’re about to open your email inbox and you’re thinking, “How many spam and/or marketing emails will I get today?”

The invention of spam had a lot to do with ruining the reputation of email as a marketing tool, and I know I now personally cringe when I get a marketing email. I mean, it’s different if I signed up for an online newsletter or something, but in general marketing emails just annoy me. Especially when I get them every day from the same company. I’m cringing now just thinking about it.

Since I like to think I’m a pretty average person, the rational line of thinking here would be if something makes me cringe then it no doubt makes others cringe too. Today email is mostly used for work purposes, and no sane person who’s already facing a full day of work wants to wade through your mass marketing emails to get to their important ones.

So if you’re drafting a mass marketing email right now, our advice is to press Delete and Send to Trash.

There is a plethora of other, much more effective ways to get your message across, mainly including social media – so why use the dinosaur when you could use the iRobot?

This doesn’t mean email doesn’t serve other useful marketing purposes. Although mass emails are out, personal emails are still very in.

Email is a great way to follow up with people you have met, and it’s a very useful networking tool. So feel free to send follow up emails, but be sure to make them personal and not just a mass email in disguise.