Email Marketing - The End Is Nigh!

Consider if you will the resources, the time and the financial investment given to attracting new web traffic. Banner advertising, link exchanges, search engine ratings, affiliate schemes and the list goes on. Yet when it comes to retaining a customer's future business or even a return visit, we simply hope that they will opt-in to a newsletter mailing list and everything will be okay.

Of course the truth of opt-in email marketing is far from okay. For a start, people, especially private individuals, frequently change their email address. For many people, email addresses are a disposable accessory, which should be replaced every few weeks when the Spam starts rolling in. I don't know about you, but I have enough trouble keeping up with the email changes of my friends and family, let alone a list of a few thousand customers and potential customers.

Typing "email marketing" into Google will return literally thousands of software products and services all promising to make your email campaign more successful and slick. Of course it doesn't matter how much or how little you expend on your email newsletter, it will still be one subject line of possibly hundreds, all screaming for attention.

 Average email click through rates fell from 5.4% in 1999 to just 1.8% in 2003 (Source eMarketer)

 27% of emails never get opened and of those that are opened only 23% are read thoroughly (Source: J Neilsen)

 Average open rate for B2B emails has fallen by 42% since 2001 (Source eMarketer)

Although such statistics make grim reading, worse is yet to come. Some industry experts are predicting a total collapse of the email infrastructure within the next five years due to the shear volume of traffic. A technology dating back to the 1960's, email was developed as a means for geeks to communicate with other geeks, about something they had seen in the alt.freakygeek newsgroup. It was never designed to cope with the demands of mass marketing which have been inflicted upon it since the arrival of the WWW. So with that in mind, it is something of a miracle and a credit to the technology of yesteryear that it continues to work at all.

Recent research commissioned by Yahoo revealed that the average British PC has nine "sick days" a year, two more than the average for human workers. Six of these days are lost battling against Spam, while a further three are taken up combating viruses.

The Yahoo findings went on to reveal that nearly half of British computer users find dealing with junk e-mails more stressful than traffic jams and the majority want service providers to act.

But I'm no Spammer, I hear you cry! No, but your legitimate email is going to have to share the same inbox as the volumes of Spam and with only a Subject Line to stand out from the crowd, is it any wonder that email is becoming so ineffective as a marketing tool?

Clearly, alternatives to email marketing need to be developed. One emerging technology being pioneered by three software houses in the UK is that of One-2-Many Broadcasting. Already employed by the BBC, Visa, and many other blue-chip Net companies, One-2-Many Broadcasting offers a far-improved method of communicating with customers than opt-in email marketing or newsletters and already being hailed as the THE next big marketing tool.

One-2-Many Broadcasting involves the customer downloading a small client onto their PC. The customer can filter and influence what information they receive from within the software client. Once installed the website can then communicate directly with that customer by broadcasting information in a wide range of formats, all of which is attractively presented directly onto the customer's screen. Sounds frighteningly, intrusive doesn't it? Well, not according to the millions of people who are already receiving information from the latest news through to film clips of the latest movie releases. One London based soccer club, Arsenal, has reported a phenomenal take-up of their One-2-Many Broadcasting Service, with over 100,000 subscribers in the first 12 months of operating.

So will One-2-Many replace email marketing? Who knows, I suspect that over the coming years a variety of marketing alternatives will appear, of which One-2-Many will hold a share of the market. In developing alternatives to email marketing one of the major factors will and is that of price; emails are extremely cheap. Any alternative therefore, if it is to be successful, needs to be competitively priced and rich in unique features.

To date, One-2-Many Broadcasting has been relatively expensive and financially not an option for most small to medium sized businesses. As the concept of One-2-Many marketing is developed, more and different software is likely to emerge, which will in itself introduce competition and hopefully lower prices.

For more information and reading on One-2-Many Broadcasting:

www.skinkers.com

www.edesktop.co.uk

www.desknet.co.uk

To experience One-2-Many Broadcasting: http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70061-1109118,00.html - Sky News Alerts

http://www.arsenal.com/Userincludes/desktopwenger/InstallDesktopWengerNT.exe ? Arsenal FC

About The Author

Robert Palmer is CEO of deskNET Communications www.desknet.co.uk and is a leading architect in the development of One-2-Many Broadcasting software.

---

Building Relationships Takes Time: Overcoming the Overnight Surge Urge

Whenever we talk to a new or a "we hope... Read More

Improve Email Deliverability: 15 Tips for Email Marketing Success

Delivering email newsletters and sales messages to opt-in subscribers and... Read More

How to Deal With Rude E-mailers

Rude and crass e-mail seems to be at an all... Read More

Creating A Newsletter And Making Your Website Magnetic

Creating a newsletter is an ideal way to drive repeat... Read More

Build Credibility With an Email Course

When you are an expert, you sometimes forget that others... Read More

Top 3 Reasons Why RSS Is Better Than Email

Everyone is talking about RSS. Blogs, newsites and the like... Read More

Autoresponders - Simple Tweaks That will Improve Your Return Rate

Autoresponders are, without a shadow of a doubt, one of... Read More

Track Customer Response With an Autoresponder Service

Another powerful reason for making the switch from using the... Read More

Internet Tip of the Week: Mistakes Count Against You

Before the advent of email most of us, other than... Read More

Grab Those Emails! ? 11 Key Ways to Get Your Visitors to Hand Over Their Email Address

If you are trying to get an opt-in email list... Read More

7 Ways Email Can End Your Business Relationships Before They Start

Too often, people forget they're anonymous in the internet world.... Read More

Paradigm Shift for the New World

In the business world, the primary focus is on selling... Read More

Newsletter Template: Should You Use Them?

There is currently a huge demand online for newsletter templates.... Read More

6 Simple Ways to Manage Your Emails Better

E-mail, a wonderful communication tool is also the greatest challenge... Read More

20 Ways To Increase Your Traffic And Sales Using Free Follow-Up Autoresponder Courses

An autoresponder course is a group of articles or information... Read More

Are Your Subscribers Receiving Your Newsletter?

In my e-mail one day, I received the following message:... Read More

Taking Care of Busines... E-mail

In this digital day and age, communicating through email is... Read More

Email: When You Dont Get a Response

The lack of an email response is an issue I... Read More

The Lazy Mans Way To Building a Massive List In Minimum Time

As you read every word of this article, you'll be... Read More

10 Ways to SCREW-UP Your LIST

Just in case you don't know, your 'LIST' ? is... Read More

Email Deliverability Tips

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes... Read More

Why Your Email Distribution List is Your Best Source of New Sales

Don't overlook your current customers. After all, they're the ones... Read More

unorthodox email subject tricks -500% more responses!

5 unorthodox email subject tricks -500% more responses! (c) Copyright... Read More

Do You Build Or Buy? (Tips On Leadgeneration)

Every marketer needs leads, they are the lifeblood of your... Read More

The Key (Board) to Success: Effective Emailing

Email is THE medium of communication for business transactions. Unfortunately,... Read More

Your Money Is Still In Your List - Build It!

You are a home business entrepreneur. You have just built... Read More

A Guide To Automated Email Marketing

You've probably heard the expression, 'the money isin the list'.... Read More

Writing Effective Emails

Sometimes email messages can get quite long, especially when you... Read More

Email Builds Brands

Email - today's preferred business communication tool - provides you... Read More

Should You Be Writing A Newsletter As Part Of Your Online Business?

Let's start at the beginning - why do you need... Read More

Summary of Adestras Presentation on Best Practice EZines at the July NEPA Conference

At the recent Online Marketing Show, Adestra ran an email... Read More

Stop Buying Email Lists

The saying "Quality, not Quantity" is applicable even to the... Read More

Using Mirror Pages Effectively

Thought I would share with you a very effective technique... Read More