As we are coming to the end of the noughties (I still can’t believe we have called the last decade that!) I have had cause to think about how the email channel has evolved since the year 2000. So here is my potted history of the evolution of the email channel over the last ten years. I must warn you, that any dates mentioned may not be factually correct, but it is how I remembered it.
2000
Email blasting as it was known at the time (sadly I know some people still refer to it as email blasting) was starting to pick up some momentum. I recall the focus being on single offer emails in plain text with calls to action based around phone numbers rather than links to web pages. I fondly remember a campaign for County Durham Development Company to promote a small event that literally had the office inundated with phone calls. I must admit I was starting to think there could be something in this email channel.
2001
I seem to remember this was the year that HTML based emails became increasingly popular. However, they weren’t without their problems, as getting the message to look good in Outlook (I think most people were using Outlook 97), Lotus Notes and AOL at the same time was proving difficult. In a funny way though, this was the start of asking people what they wanted to receive as it became common to ask the recipient if they wanted an HTML Email, AOL Email or Plain Text message.
2002
This was the first year I worked with clients on a newsletter strategy. Ok, it was more a plan for sending out email newsletters, but it was a sign that email was moving from a humble sales tool to a mechanism to build customer relationships. I also think of this as being the first year that people really talked about there being large amounts of unsolicited email (or Spam as it is more commonly known).
2003
To combat the rise of Spam, numerous pieces of legislation were introduced in 2003. The Can Spam Act was the US solution to the problem, whilst in Europe we had the rather more grandly named EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications. Has the legislation worked? I’ll let you be the judge of that.
2003 was also the year that email featured on Sky Sports Soccer AM program for the first (and possibly only time). Why do I remember that? Well at Communicator Corp I was working with Sunderland AFC on a campaign to build their email database. As part of the campaign that we put together, we were able to get our “finalists” on Soccer AM as the team of the week. What was really special about the campaign though, was that the database grew by over 300%, with an opt in rate of 85%.
2004
What do you mean my email hasn’t been delivered to the inbox? Yep, you guessed it, 2004 was the year where I and many others really learnt that permission based emails could get filtered as well. At the time, the filtering decisions were all based on the content of your message, but ensuring delivery to the inbox was starting to become difficult. To combat this I recall working with a US Company (who later became ReturnPath) to provide some seed list reporting on where our clients messages were being delivered too.
2005
Email marketing was becoming increasingly popular, with what seemed like every big business having their own email newsletter program. This was the first year I recall prospects calling Communicator Corp to ask for our advice and expertise. Up until that point our sales efforts had all been based on out bound calls. Newsletters were being sent, links were being tracked and email was proving increasingly popular. Due to the depth of reporting that was available on the success of an email campaign, we were all able to see how we could make email campaigns even more successful. Testing is something I believe many of us still don’t have the time to do properly, but in 2005 we started to realise the importance of this tactic.
2006
In 2006, I remember writing a research piece on the impact of a personalised greeting on click through rates. Even this type of basic personalisation in an email, was adding an uplift of 2% to a click through rate. On this basis I worked on a program with the Co-operative Group to help them collect more detailed information on their email recipients – in essence this was the first time I had been involved with a preference campaign. Whilst my memory of their initial results weren’t that impressive, there data set up now is definitely one to be admired. Many data collection and data management campaigns take time and aren’t a silver bullet, but the sooner you get started the earlier you can reap the rewards.
I know that my time in email has taught me that the data you have is the single most important factor in the success of an email campaign.
2007
For some reason, I don’t have any stand out memories of the email channel in 2007. I recall inboxes starting to become cluttered and working with clients on how they can ensure their email messages stand out. This was the first year I worked on an email campaign that scrolled horizontally rather than vertically. I have read reports that show horizontal scrolling can really improve interaction, but my experience suggests otherwise.
What else happened in 2007? Well Outlook 2007 was launched and caused a stir with email designers everywhere. Gmail became available to the general public and last time I looked it now makes up about 7% of all the email addresses used by Communicator Corp customers. These two email clients alone, highlight how important it is to have an email design expert work on your email creative as they both work in very different ways.
2008
I think of 2008 as being the year when marketers started to really consider targeting and relevancy as being important elements of their email campaigns. That isn’t to say that every email I now get is highly targeted and relevant but I think that most marketers are now striving towards that goal. I recall working on a number of highly targeted campaigns within the travel sector where we were sending emails to lists as small as 30 people but over 40% of recipients placed an order; with the average order value being over £2,000. So with results like that why don’t more marketers conduct highly targeted campaigns? I think it is simply down to resources, many marketers involved with the email channel are running their campaigns as part of their job and simply don’t have the time to conduct more targeted campaigns. I am sure this will change in time and it is something that we at the Communicator Corp know we have a responsibility to help our customers with in 2010.
2009
So then, what happened to the email channel in 2009? For me, 2009 was spent talking about reputation and automation.
Reputation was something that I spoke to our clients and the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) about and how it affects inbox placement. It has probably been the first year I recall the ISPs actually reaching out to client side marketers in the UK, with some good Yahoo and Hotmail events having taken place. The challenge still remains that ISPs are making their decisions based on what the recipients are telling them (either directly or indirectly), but for marketers the view is that just because a recipient doesn’t open an email today, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want to receive it tomorrow. It has been an interesting year for inbox placement and I’m sure that will continue into 2010.
The other popular topic of conversation this year has been automation. How can we help businesses automate elements of their email activity to save them time and money? My favourite example of this has been our work with the Perform Group. If you haven’t read the case study then please do as it shows how we have saved them over 30 hours a week of work.
Looking back to the year 2000 we can see just how far the email channel has come. I am sure that the channel will continue to evolve, but importantly I see its adoption increasing with smaller businesses as well.