Email Marketing is Dead. Yes, Really.

Social media is replacing email!

TikTok is now the most-used search engine!

You might have heard these statements along with people exclaiming that they 'never read emails anymore'. And it's true, people are much LESS likely to open and read emails in their inbox than ever before. This aside, 99% of people still open their email every day. This is a surprising amount of people still engaging with their inbox considering that email is dead.

Well... maybe we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. Email isn't dead, yet. But it's close to it. That's because traditional email strategies, or having no strategy at all, is not working and companies are finally paying for it. The scatter and pray method has finally got the best of companies, and they aren't adapting to emerging consumer trends.

The average consumer's inbox is oversaturated, and that's a fact. So let's dive in to see why critics think email is dying, and I'll let you decide if it's already had its funeral.

Declining Open Rates

Inboxes are oversaturated with emails, and bad emails at that. Open rates aren't a great metric to rely on, and it definitely isn't the holy grail that many Business Development teams think it is. Dig deeper into your conversion rates or website traffic post email send. Or double check that targeted messaging with dynamic content is included in the body of your email. As email open rates decline, marketers have to get scrappy.

Being scrappy with marketing tactics never means being deceitful, yet some marketers use this is a last resort. Another rather desperate resort that is trending in my inbox (and hopefully your inbox as well so that we can share in this cringey tactic) is the 'Oops emails'. These emails aren't actual corrections or redactions of wrongly sent content, but merely the opposite. They are excuses for companies to double email me, overload my inbox with fluff, and even upsell me on additional products. It's tasteless. And while it may improve the company's open rates, it surely won't fool customers more than once.

Let's move towards better metrics to evaluate our email campaigns once and for all. And while we're at it, why not consider an alternate way to communicate and connect with your audience instead of the dying method of email.

Shifts to Alternate Communication Channels

Yes, people are still opening their inboxes. But people are no longer engaging with emails nearly as often. Although 99% of people check their email every day, emails are being ignored and deleted. The quality of those 'spray and pray' emails has forever ruined (or at least tainted) email as a primary distribution channel that companies could rely on. TikTok and Instagram have rose through the ranks, both with Store features that allow for easy consumer shopping and product endorsements. Even Twitter (pre shift to 'X') saw Brands take to their accounts and become active in their consumers' feeds. The famous fast-food wars got consumers engaged. And Airline Customer Service responses is absolutely unmatched on Twitter.

Alternate communications channels are on the rise as email personalization and relevancy keeps dropping. Consumers want to feel heard. And consumers want to feel seen. A way for this to be accomplished is through VIP groups and message boards that already exist within other communication channels. Exclusive and semi-exclusive groups are popping up with a strong consumer following since content is tailored to THEM. Emails have to match this strong level of exclusivity. And emails must reach the level of personalization needed for consumers to feel seen, or they will keep ignoring your emails (no matter HOW good your emoji is in the subject line).

Lack of Personalization

Speaking of personalizing emails with emojis, that strategy is getting old fast. Email personalization doesn't simply mean to address someone by name anymore. And it certainly doesn't mean name dropping your recipient's company name or their job field. Those insights aren't even recognized as personalization to consumers-- they expect you to know that if you're adding to their inbox clutter. 69% of marketers use email marketing to share their content, which makes it the third most popular distribution channel. You now have to stand out.

Sure, your use of emoji may make you stand out. Or your email design could differentiate you from your competitors, but that's assuming your audience even opens your emails in the first place.

Your actual offers and messaging should be tailored to the exact person you're speaking to. As best as you can, narrow down your audience into multiple personas. We used to think that 3-5 target personas were ideal. However to actually stand out in an inbox and make a consumer want to engage with your email, you may consider adding multiple prospecting sequences to each persona according to the stage they are in. This gets complicated quick, so consider mapping out each prospecting sequence and the timing. If you read my last article on Sequence-based marketing, you'll already have a leg up from the competition in mapping out your prospecting sequence based on new lead scoring techniques.

New data suggests that it can take closer to 40 touchpoints to make a sale and gain a customer in 2024, so score your leads and start creating quality content specifically for your different buyer personas.

Outdated Mobile Design

Nearly 60% of email opens are on mobile and nearly 58% of people report checking their email on their phone first thing in the morning. No surprise considering the digital age that we live in, but what's likely surprising is that many companies aren't optimizing their emails for mobile. This is why email is dying.

Why not spend 10 extra minutes on your email design and template so that it's optimized for those 60% of email opens. This means keeping your email copy concise and short. Think about the copy 'above the fold' but this time you're working with even less space. Also take a moment to think about your colors, graphics, headlines, and pictures that all contribute to loading speed and reduced pixels on the screen. And don't get me started on embedded videos or GIFs that never seem to format correctly especially if they aren't spaced and designed for mobile usage specifically.

But going back to colors and font choices, mobile opens give us a different perspective on design opposed to the desktop previews you've likely been using within your email marketing software. Did you know, the most used email clients in the world were Apple (58.08%), Gmail (29.68%), and Microsoft Outlook (4.04%) and ALL of these format emails differently. I'm not going to get into a super technical breakdown of why these emails format different, but this article does a great job at explaining email clients vs email services, CSS styling and responsive design, and AMP for email. In short, you have over a 50% chance of your email being opened on mobile and each mobile device will format your email differently, so take advantage of mobile optimization. Spend a few minutes thinking through the design and even redesigning the email for desktop vs mobile if your Email Marketing software allows.

Conclusion

Don't get me wrong, I still think email is a very worthwhile communication channel when executed correctly. However, companies need to set the bar higher since lack luster emails and mediocre email strategy simply isn't cutting it. Consumers want better, and they deserve better. If you're using email outreach, I encourage you to implement some of the strategies I mentioned above to at least land in your customers' inboxes and give you a fighting chance to have your email opened.

Feel free to reach out to me if you liked what you read or have questions! I'm happy to take a look at your current strategy and provide a complimentary audit of your emails and nurture sequences (even if you don't think your email strategy is dead). You can reach out to me at [email protected]