e-Mail - a rebirth?

Yesterday news arrived from Honda, by way of their hotmail account, that not only had my e-mail address been drawn to win a new car but I also stood to win several million pound in a further competition. Today I have been contacted by an attorney anxious to trace the beneficiary of a multi-million dollar legacy who has reason to believe I might be the rightful heir to this fortune. Then a K I Bakri asked for help from his death bed in distributing a fortune stashed in his diplomatic box to the under privileged of the world. Perhaps unaware of this rapid accumulation of wealth many more people have kindly sent me offers for fake watches, amazing medications that will enhance my life, share tips and cheap software. All this means frequently de-cluttering my e-mail in box and hoping I don’t inadvertently trash a message that is actually of importance to my business. Amongst all this lunacy there have been frequent reports placing e-mail back as the top Internet application and a powerful marketing tool. Arguably e-mail was the first Internet marketing tool and judging by a sense of weight of e-mail delivered marketing advice recently it has survived all the concerns of junk and spam to emerge reborn. Various communications and blogs seem to have almost rediscovered e-mail as a marketing tool. Of course we are also an advocate of e-mail and for some clients direct mail is just not affordable as the costs are per item – print, postage, envelope etc – compared to an e-mail set up cost largely independent of volume. Of course much has also been written about list building, opt-in subscribers, frequency of e-mails, subject lines and much more. Yes it works, but really as part of an integrated marketing programme where other communications methods are employed as well. But is it enjoying a new beginning? The jury is still out on that one.