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Is Email Marketing Obsolete?

That is a pretty startling question.  You no doubt have checked your email dozens of times today, sent numerous emails out and gotten that many or more in, so to say that as a mode of communication that email is obsolete would be a mistake.  Email is no more obsolete than letter writing or talking on the telephone is.  But it is safe to say that it’s possible that web based email marketing is no longer cutting edge and its era as a primary tool for internet marketing may be coming to an end, in its present form.

Email Direct Marketing Tool

When email first became popular, it virtually changed the way communication worked in a way that can only be compared to the invention of the telephone.  Email combined the quickness of a telephone conversation with the ability to document what was said in a letter writing exchange.  At the time, to be able to send an email that reached the recipient’s email box in a moment’s time, even if they were on the other side of the world, was mind blowing.

The internet marketing potential was tremendous.  As internet marketing became a genuine  mode of doing business, it grew up as the use of email grew up .  However there was trouble in paradise and I probably don’t have to tell you what the problems were.  It can be summed up in one word – spam.  Spam is nothing more than unwanted email communications usually from an internet marketer.  The corresponding experience outside of the internet is the Telemarketer phone call in the middle of dinner or junk mail and both are just as irritating and unwelcome as spam marketing emails.

Advertising and Promotion Strategy: to spam or not to spam

So in the last decade internet marketing using email as the primary mode of communication with your customers has grown in two parallel lines.  The legitimate side of email marketing and customer support has grown and become more sophisticated, respected and useful.  Many businesses were able to build impressive online business empires supported by email marketing and ongoing email communications with a growing customer base.  For thousands of online marketers, the idea of conducting business without emailing customers seems impossible.

But it was the other parallel line that grew like a cancer to the point that it snarled email communications and has interfered with email deliverability for  the many legitimate email based internet merchants working in cyberspace.  The spam merchants working with sophisticated mass mailing services and software have flooded email inboxes of every citizen of cyberspace to such an extent that, without spam control software, both at the server level and at the desk top level, it is virtually impossible to use email for routine purposes any more.

Spam control software has grown exponentially as well and become powerful and sophisticated.  It has also spawned a cottage industry which has imposed a whole new cost of operations on every email user in the world who wants to avoid the spam avalanche they will face if they go unprotected.  This has created resentment and distrust in the email system of communications in general and certainly toward online merchants who wish to use the internet for customer service and marketing.  A few have spoiled it for the whole.

Because of this ongoing war between spam operators and spam control software services, email deliverability has become a tedious chore to maintain and without constant oversight, an internet merchant can lose contact with its customers in short order.  For that reason, email could become more difficult as a valid and easy to use tool for marketing and customer communications.

Responsible Email Marketing

Meanwhile new forms of communications such as instant messaging, VOIP and WEB 2.0 interoperability have begun.  The chances are that we will see email marketing small business move away from email marketing to exploit these much more dynamic methods for connecting customers. This can be seen with the advent of social networking such as Twitter and Facebook.  And while email will never die as a cornerstone of online communications, from an internet marketing point of view, it is time for us all to find new and effective ways to establish responsible email marketing.