Comments on: Don’t Waste Money on Email Marketing

By: Back to the Basics «

Back to the Basics « — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:22:16 +0000

[...] a test drive with e-mail – E-mail marketing continues to grow and drives the most ROI versus any other online-marketing channel. Like a [...]

By: Jordan McCollum

Jordan McCollum — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:24:57 +0000

The study actually points out that social networks’ use of email notification reinforces the importance of email (the “social inbox”).

IMO, even if anti-spam filters improve, performance is still going to be a challenge, since a lot of people sign up for email, but later forget and consider those messages spam.

By: Elmer

Elmer — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:12:43 +0000

Thanks Jordan for the article. It’s interesting to see the interest level still rise along with the spending despite the emergence of social media which can be used as alternative route to reach our intended audience.

Would it be because cost of email marketing will fall? Will anti-spam filters be sophisticated enough to conquer spammers so performance will improve dramatically? Or maybe adhering to best practice (mailing list cleanup and segmentation) and exploring new grounds (extending reach by connecting email with social media) will be enough to keep us from wasting our email marketing dollars.

I haven’t read Forrester’s entire report but I was wondering if these are also included. Thanks again.

By: Jordan McCollum

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:36:26 +0000

I’m sorry that it went over your head. But there’s a huge difference between saying “didn’t work for me” and “I looked this person up on LinkedIn and obviously she has no idea what she’s talking about”—that’s what really bugged me.

By: mstrunk

mstrunk — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:32:10 +0000

Jordan: thanks for the article. I like the data, but I do understand comments about the confusion on the “wasting money” comments. It was a worthy try a creating a twist to the editorial – but it’s not delivering for the reader. This is not casting aspersions – just feedback on your article. looking forward to reading more.

By: Jordan McCollum

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:46:10 +0000

That’s okay, Jaan. I know you, so I know it’s not just some random drive-by comment trying to cast aspersions on me personally. I can see how you might be confused; I just thought that I addressed the sarcasm/intent of the title in the body of the article.

Apparently that was a part that was easy to skip!

By: Jaan Kanellis

Jaan Kanellis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:42:57 +0000

Thanks for the replies Jordan and I understand what you were trying for from the content of the article to the title, just thought it was a little confusing that is all. Jaan Kanellis's last blog post..PR Sculpting?Told Ya So

By: Jordan McCollum

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:34:11 +0000

Hi, Tim, and welcome to Marketing Pilgrim. If you took the time to read my response to Jaan’s comment, or the article itself, I believe it’s abundantly clear that the article is about how not to waste the money you spend on email marketing by doing it effectively. As I’ve quoted from the article already in the comments:

“So why shouldn’t you waste money on email marketing?

“Because wasting money is bad—and why waste money when you can make sure your email marketing is even more cost effective?”

The rest of the article is about that very subject.

Here in the blogosphere, sometimes we attract interest to articles with a tongue-in-cheek title that seems to contradict what the article says. Cf:

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/05/the-biggest-news-story-you-wil l-read-today.html
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/06/blogs-monger-rumors-all-hail-o ur-mainstream-media-saviors.html
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/06/totally-unbiased-criticism-of- bing-from-yahoo-and-google.html
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/06/google-is-a-machine-mahalo-our -human-search-savior.html

But, hey, if you want to go comment on those stories and imply that Andy and I don’t know anything about Google, search or blogging, that’d be great.

I guess I’m going to have to clarify that that’s sarcasm. Please note that this kind of personal attack is a violation of our comment policy. You might have noticed in your extensive background check that I actually did some email marketing while I was with an agency, and I’m the editor here.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:06:49 +0000

Have to agree Jaan, the commentary wrapped around this makes no sense. Whose wasting money here? Not sure what McCollum’s expertise supposedly is, her LinkedIn says she is a former SEO copywriter, but clearly it is not in media mix management. What this study suggests is intelligent and proper growth of the email channel and marketers wising up to not “waste” money on branded search terms with Google and to put their money into areas that will grow sales at their companies.

By: ToddySM

ToddySM — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:11:52 +0000

Interesting research data, Jordan:) However, I wonder how much the market of spam filters will grow by 2014. It will be interesting to see where the technology will bring us with filtering the informaiton we really need and are interested in instead just dumping ev erything in our inboxes. ToddySM's last blog post..Does your blog content suck and why?

By: Jordan McCollum

Jordan McCollum — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:06:14 +0000

The whole article is about how not to waste the money you spend on email marketing:

“So why shouldn’t you waste money on email marketing?

“Because wasting money is bad—and why waste money when you can make sure your email marketing is even more cost effective?”

By: Jaan Kanellis

Jaan Kanellis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:48:26 +0000

Not so sure on the title of this, very confusing as the whole article points to spending money on email marketing. Jaan Kanellis's last blog post..Time For FaceBook Vanity URLs on Saturday June 13th, 2009

By: Nino B

Nino B — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:41:42 +0000

Those are some great information, and that’s a lot f money spent just on marketing…