Who Owns E-Mail?
Last year, I wrote a column about the power of e-mail. I discussed the fact that e-mail isn't a marketing trick but a powerful dialogue tool. I then wrote about CMOs undervaluing e-mail and challenged them to look into their e-mail programs' effects, from both a response and a branding standpoint. A third column talked about the fact that doing e-mail right is plain, old hard. An effective e-mail marketer must understand not only contact strategies but also good layout elements, technical functions, database transfers, deliverability factors, and more. And recently I wrote a report about image, link, and message rendering for the for the Email Experience Council (EEC) that talks about how to ensure your e-mail renders appropriately in Outlook 2007.
Presented independently, each of these columns appears informational, possibly even insightful. But presented collectively, they paint a very clear picture: no one owns the e-mail channel. Instead, a bunch of smart people run around creating standards and best practices to deal with decisions being made by people who significantly affect the way we use e-mail.
This is pretty scary. A product-development person at Microsoft will significantly change the way we create e-mail because that person felt HTML support was overrated. A politician significantly changed how e-mail sends were managed for Michigan recipients by mandating a suppression e-mail list be used before every send. A man who lives on a boat in Europe had a significant say in whether your e-mail would be delivered because he made a list.
All the while, we marketers have been left reacting to all these developments and spending our time changing the way we do business to accommodate these uninformed e-mail policymakers.
Wouldn't it make more sense if some individual or group could turn the tables and own e-mail? E-mail is one of the most widely used communication channels in the world. Wouldn't it be better if, as smart marketers, we spent our time proactively defining the future of e-mail rather than reacting to it?
The time has come for us to take a stand and define e-mail. We must begin to set standards and advocate positive changes. If you are an active e-mail marketer, send me your top three e-mail goals, and I'll use them in a future column. Perhaps if we all talk about what would be good for the industry, we'll have a chance at making it better.
And if this column has you fired up enough to want to make a proactive change, take this poll. It asks if rendering companies should add an enhancement that lets people test e-mail views on handheld devices. If the overwhelming answer is yes, we can take ownership and focus on making that change.
Want more e-mail marketing information? ClickZ E-Mail Reference is an archive of all our e-mail columns, organized by topic.
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Prior to joining Zinio in 2008, she was executive director, senior partner, worldwide e-mail marketing at OgilvyOne Worldwide, a global leader in customer relationship management and interactive marketing.
Previously, Jeanniey founded and ran her own interactive agency. She also served as the CMO and EVP at Avalon Digital Marketing Systems, where she helped launch one of the first B2B e-mail platforms that incorporated on-demand video in the message. Prior to Avalon, Jeanniey worked at Grey Direct and pioneered the first e-mail marketing practice inside a global agency. Jeanniey is viewed as one of the thought leaders in the e-mail marketing field. Her expertise in the discipline spans both the B2B and B2C industries.
Article Archives by Jeanniey Mullen
Ask People Out on Dates in E-mail on Wednesdays - Jun 23, 2008
What's New in E-mail Best Practices - Jun 9, 2008
How E-mail Impacts Society - May 12, 2008
Romper Room and the E-mail Industry - Apr 28, 2008
More article archives
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