The From Line

Ken Magill of Direct Magazine does it again by exposing the dirty side of email.  However this time a little bit of politics was added creating a cesspool of irony.  His recent report "Prankster Pollutes Obama's E-mail List" exactly makes my point from last night's blog post.  Even though politicians are exempt from the CAN SPAM Act they aren't immune to best practices.  As Hillary Clinton would have put it, "shame on you Barack Obama!"

As the 2008 presidential primaries come to a close, the remaining candidates' staffers are making a mad rush to expand their social networking presence.  Any medium to reach voters who were previously an afterthought in the last election has become the mantra amongst Clinton and Obama supporters in a tight Democratic primary.  However no matter how much effort goes into harnessing the power of social networking in the name of politics, email is right around the corner as an opposition's counter-measure to undermine such efforts.

One of the more popular smear campaigns this election has come in the form of an email claiming that Barak Obama is a Muslim.  This viral email attempted to establish a link of faith between Barak Obama and his paternal ancestry.  It was so successful that it garnered mainstream media attention forcing the up and coming presidential candidate to fight back and clarify false accusations.  Another email aimed at African American voters claimed to be from NAACP Chairman Julian Bond entitled "10 Reasons Not to Vote for Hillary Clinton."  The Obama campaign picked up on the hoax's momentum posting the email on the candidate's website only to quickly remove it when alerted to its true origin.

Email smear tactics are nothing new in politics but in this election it sheds light on the staying power email has as a viral tool.  As other Internet mediums such as social networking have gained popularity over the past couple of years, email marketers are failing to recognize email as a viable social medium.  This is not to say that one should ignore the social networking revolution but to find new ways to leverage the two mediums in tandem to create the ultimate viral marketing tool.

Waking up Tuesday morning to CNBC’s Becky Quick telling me the Dow Jones Futures were down almost 600 points after a surprise three quarter of a point Fed rate cut really put a damper on my day.  As I watched the real-time chart tick lower, my stomach started to knot, leaving me in a dizzying stupor.

It’s times like these that bring me back to my days as a small cap equities analyst where I would question CFOs about where they planned to cut and by how much.  The first answer out of their mouths was almost always “non-revenue generating jobs” such as customer and administrative support.  The second most common answer is “advertising and marketing.”  The second answer always baffled me especially from companies that aren’t leveraged.

In a time of a recession, companies with access to capital have an unusual opportunity to take market share as they are able to sustain or increase their marketing budgets.  Whenever a CFO with a decent to strong cash position told me that he or she were going to slash their marketing budget going into an economic downturn, I eventually sold the company’s stock and bought the competitor’s with the intention to keep its marketing budget intact.  This strategy worked well – especially in the services sectors.

Although most people do suffer from a recession, the winners do emerge and I’m confident that email marketing could get a gold medal.  During the 2001-2002 recession, email marketing was just on the cusp of becoming widely adopted but had yet to make the necessary penetration to become a formidable part of the promotional mix.  Most notably, the cost per email hovered around $0.05, way below the cost of a direct mail piece yet still prohibitive for most companies to implement two or three times a week on a large scale.  Fast forward to 2008, email marketing is now one of the least expensive marketing channels, and according to the DMA, a very high performer.  Today, most email marketers are paying under a penny per email however email marketing only claims a small part of the average marketing budget.  Even though email marketing has become widespread, email marketers, on a larger scale, are still not leveraging the medium’s true potential such as advanced personalization, delivery monitoring and management and integration with third party systems. 

This gap, coupled with a potential economic downturn, presents a unique opportunity for email marketers to lobby their CEOs/CFOs for a larger slice of their marketing budget.  Email marketers have already proven that email marketing works well now is their opportunity to reclaim it as the most relevant push channel available and the biggest bang for the buck.

According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), 15 to 25 new “Do Not Mail” bills will be introduced on the state level that will attempt to replicate the Federal Do Not Call legislation.  Although the federal government does have a legitimate business interest (US Postal Service) in not proposing federal legislation, Congress might be forced into taking action if a patchwork of state laws pass.

What does this mean for email marketers? 

Legislation in one marketing medium usually finds its way to other ones as technology makes compliance easier and enforcement is less of an issue.  It is doubtful that 2008 will see any significant legislation specifically related to email marketing. The “Do Not Mail” bills, however, could be a pre-curser to amending CAN SPAM from opt-out to opt-in. This means that all recipients will need to officially opt-in to receiving your email. Right now, the law requires marketers to have an opt-out option, and while opt-in is preferred, it’s not required. 

Stay ahead of this potential hiccup by strengthening your opt-in methods now. Check out eLoop’s features such as landing pages, surveys, and others to see how you can increase your opt-in savvy.

1.  The Death of the ISP White List
For those lucky email marketers who previously relied on ISP white lists for superior deliverability will get a shocking wake up call this year.  As ISPs rely more on reputation-based systems for discerning good senders from bad ones white lists are rapidly becoming obsolete as the mistake of false positives are less of an issue.  This new technology and methodology of reputation-based systems levels the deliverability playing field for all email marketers eliminating the backdoor approach to deliverability.  This also means that email marketers must continue to rely on best practices and monitor their reputation as a slip up can cost them dearly.

2.  Email Rendering on Mobile Devices
As the mobile phone continues to become the main communications device, email rendering on mobile devices will become a serious issue in 2008.  Since many mobile devices only display text emails, email marketers will have a challenging time separating their mobile users from their traditional computer receivers.  This segmentation will be necessary to ensure proper rendering of their messages to non-HTML friendly email clients.  It will also be difficult for email marketers to determine the true open rate of their campaigns because of this growing user base.

3.  Authentication Technology Will Become Mandatory
DomainKeys, OpenSPF and Sender ID - if you don't know what these things are find out fast! Mail server authentication both from a marketing and corporate admin standpoint will become a necessary defense in the spam war.  It is estimated that only 30% of mail servers use these authentication technologies however this number will grow quickly as email marketers rush to take advantages of technology that will help distinguish their email from spam. In addition, it wouldn't surprise me if the FTC made this a mandatory practice as part of compliance with the CAN SPAM Act.

4.  More Legislation Might Be Around The Corner
According to the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) there will be 15 to 25 new Do Not Mail bills introduced on the state level that will attempt to replicate the Federal Do Not Call legislation.  Although the federal government does have a legitimate business interest (US Postal Service) in not proposing federal legislation, Congress might be forced into taking action if a patchwork of state laws pass.  What does this mean for email marketers?  Legislation in one marketing medium usually finds its way to other ones as technology makes compliance and enforcement is less of an issue.  Although I don't think 2008 will bring any significant legislation to email marketing, the Do Not Mail bills could be a pre-curser to amending CAN SPAM from opt-out to opt-in.

5.  Social Networking Sites Will Become The New Inbox Providers
When people think of social networking sites like MySpace, FaceBook, Linked-In, etc. they usually don't think of email however this will soon change.  I find it ironic when social networking pundits declare that the social networking will bring the death of email when the medium is totally reliant on email for viral marketing and alerts.  Based on the wide adoption of social networking sites over the past few years, coupled with the fact that the average user is increasing the amount of time spent on these sites, it is only natural for social networking sites to include inter-network email as part of their service offerings.  Get ready for MySpace, FaceBook and Linked-In to compete with Google, Yahoo and MSN for the inbox.

Overall 2008 should be a great year for email marketing.  More businesses large and small will rely more on the medium as it claims a larger footprint in their Internet marketing mix.  Happy New Year!