 Allow me to make a bold prediction into the future of email:
The future of email marketing takes place inside the social networking environment.
Curious as to how I've come to this conclusion? Let me share with you the research and experiences that have led me to this prediction.
First, let's take a look at the graphic below, created by Morgan Stanley (click on image to view full size). Looking at the graph, you'll notice a couple of things:
These upward trends of both email and social networking should not be surprising because there is ample room in our lives for both. Think about it this way: Today, we use social media to cover a variety of tasks - we use it to read messages, view photos, share links, play games, manage events, keep friends and colleagues updated on our activities, and manage an ever-growing list of contacts. And because it is managed so well, many of us have expanded our circle of contacts past a small group and into a larger network that may include former coworkers, high school buddies, and current clients. But before social media made it easy for us to visualize and organize all of these different activities, we used email to do all of those things, albeit with a smaller group of contacts. Who else can remember playing a Scrabble game via email?
Social Media Lets Us Connect with a Bigger Network
Next, imagine that every social media connection you made was being delivered to you via email, whether you were there or not. Opening your inbox in the morning, you'd be greeted by a plethora of one-line email messages with status updates ("Just got finished playing tennis!"), friends' comments ("Did Sandy beat you again?"), links to photo albums, random YouTube videos that your wife's cousin thought were funny, and more. After a day or so of that kind of onslaught of information, it's easy to see that email would quickly go from being a productivity enhancer to a completely unusable medium. There would simply be too much noise to sort through, and you'd likely have to scale back your network to just those people with whom you needed to interact.
Social media lets us manage and interact with a much wider network of people than email can reasonably allow. Though it is still being refined through different filters and views, social networks are moving toward a place of presenting you with the most important content and letting content that is not as important sit on the sidelines until you decide to go looking for it.
The Purpose of Email is Changing, But it's Still Highly Relevant
As time goes on, I see email and social media coming together again, or perhaps coexisting within a social network that provides people with a way to separately view email and social network-generated messages. There's no doubt, however, that the purpose of email is changing. Email used to be the only direct way to connect with a customer or consumer online, but now it is only one of a myriad of ways. Consider this: a Microsoft exec speaking at the MediaPost Email Insider Summit recently revealed that consumers are using Hotmail these days primarily for business purposes because much of their consumer-to-consumer interactions are taking place within social networks instead of inboxes.
With the purpose of email evolving, is it moving in a direction where email is neither necessary nor relevant? This is hardly the case; in fact, because of this shift, some of email's functionality is more important than ever. Email currently surpasses social media messaging when it comes to delivering private longer form or "letter" type messaging, private attachments like proposals, confidential presentations and contracts, and messages that need to be kept for the future, like receipts, waivers and vouchers. Email is also highly relevant for delivering other business and marketing communications as well as alerts and notifications.
Focus on the Message, not the Medium
It comes down to this: savvy marketers realize they must pay attention to both social media marketing and email marketing. Ignoring one or the other presents a huge risk to your marketing efforts and your business' bottom line. Email is moving into the social networking environment as we speak; Twitter allows you to send a direct message to any of your followers, Facebook recently announced that it is launching an email platform, and MySpace Webmail has been around for some time. Don't worry about whether the user's inbox is accessed via their desktop or via their Facebook account; concentrate instead on creating meaningful content and providing email recipients, fans, and followers with valuable information that they can use.
To learn more about the benefits of aligning email marketing and social media read:
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About the Author
Riaz Kanani (@riazkanani) is Alliances Director for Lyris. Located in London, UK he is responsible for international agencies and partnerships. Riaz is also a member of the UK DMA Email Marketing Council and a passionate advocate and speaker for email marketing, social media and the future of digital marketing.
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