Email’s journey from novelty to annoyance
The Road to Annoyance
Waaay back in 1993 it happened.
“You’ve got mail!”
The familiar greeting that all former AOL subscribers remember fondly. Back in those days, everyone everywhere eagerly raced to their computers to see who might have sent them a message.
That was then. This is now.
Fast forward to today, and that familiar mail announcement is a distant memory. And let’s face it. That unread message number on your phone’s mail app is more likely to fill you with dread than excitement.
Simply put, email is not what it once was, what with cold emails, spam messages, and all those ignored subscriptions mucking up inboxes everywhere. It begs a question digital markets would love to ask their customers and prospects:
Why isn’t email your preferred channel when interacting with a business?
Once a necessary part of any company communications strategy, email has overstayed its welcome. If you aren’t careful, the email marketing you long relied on for staying close to your audience or patrons could be the very thing that drives them away. Is that is a risk a marketer should be willing to take? The fact is, email marketing doesn’t work as well as it used to. Here’s why:
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Today’s highly advanced spam filters come in handy when protecting you from a potentially harmful or inappropriate email. Unfortunately, they don’t do much to improve email marketing’s reputation. Many times, providers like Google or Yahoo automatically send brand emails to the spam folder! If the email provider doesn’t think your messages are safe enough to open, chances are your recipients won’t either.
Though a digital marketer may think they’re doing the brand a favor by including as much information in a marketing email as possible, it turns out many of their recipients find the lengthy newsletters they regularly send off-putting. Today’s consumers are busy. They don’t want to spend free time reading a long email that’s pitching them something they may not have even asked for in the first place.
The worst culprit? Sometimes, marketing emails are impersonal. It’s frustrating when brands flood your inbox with messages about things you don’t really care about, or worse — start their email with the dreaded, “Dear Customer.” Ignoring audience concerns and interests is an ongoing problem among digital marketers. It’s another reason email has become outdated in the minds of many of today’s consumers.
There’s a reason “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” is such a common saying: it’s a principle that really works. The best way for any marketer or business owner to keep patrons engaged is to evolve with the times, taking advantage of the things that resonate most with their audience. And in this case, it’s SMS messaging. Of course, some work must be done before a business can make text messaging its primary means of communicating with customers. First, it’s a good idea to weigh the pros and cons of texting your audience. The results will vary, but considering that about 62 percent of the American consumers Meera surveyed are fed up with the spam emails, it’s probably safe to assume the pros of making the switch will outweigh the cons.
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