While at Blog World Expo recently I recorded this video interview with Abby Johnson from Web Pro News. We covered a variety of topics including why email marketing is not dead – internet marketing for smart people – the new FTC regulations and touched on a new project I’m working on with Brian Clark and Chris Brogan.
Read other recent email marketing posts on ProBlogger:
My name is Darren Rowse and I’m a full time Blogger making a living from this new and dynamic medium from blogs like Digital Photography School and TwiTip - Twitter Tips.
Back in 2002 I stumbled upon an article about ‘Blogging’. I didn’t know it at the time but that moment changed my life. Since then I've become a full time blogger and have blogged on over 20 blogs and co-founded the b5media blog network.
You can connect with me via social media sites at Facebook (friend limit reached) - Facebook Fan Page - LinkedIn - ProBlogger on Twitter (also ProBlogger.com on Twitter) - SU - FriendFeed - Digg
44 Responses to “Email Marketing is Not Dead” - Add Yours
Eat Smart Age Smart
November 17th, 2009 5:22 am
Darren,
This is one video I will NOT miss because I’ve been hearing/reading that email is dead and there is no point in doing any email promotions.
Thanks so much for this information because it’s getting confusing to know what is what online these days since every guru has a different agenda.
Krizia
John Paul
November 17th, 2009 5:25 am
I think done right, email will always be a big part of any business.
Great post.
Family Man
November 17th, 2009 5:28 am
Email done right is still a valuable tool. I recently launched a newsletter product, and it will be a valuable way to continue to build traffic to my site. I think part of the problem is when these email campaigns become very spammy.
Great video, and nice information about the FTC rules for bloggers!
Rahul - Web Guru
November 17th, 2009 5:30 am
And just today I got a new software for email marketing. This was just for a trial and lets see how this one kicks off.
Ms. Freeman
November 17th, 2009 5:50 am
I have to say this is one of the best produced videos I’ve seen come out of that conference. Her questions are ones that bloggers are actually asking so Thanks for your answers Darren.
I too wish the FTC would give more detailed information on their requirements. I visited there website and they have some videos set up to answer questions but they are still very vague.
Free Article Directory
November 17th, 2009 6:03 am
Great post. I dont think email marketing will be going away anytime soon, and when executed correctly, it can be very powerful. Cheers
Jeff Yablon
November 17th, 2009 6:05 am
Totally correct. Notice the proliferation of services like Constant Contact? This isn’t just about people being sheep.
It may be unpopular as all hell to send spam, but once opt-in has occurred there’s nothing with bang-for-the-buck like e-mail, even if you only get 20% open rate.
Jeff Yablon
President & CEO
Answer Guy and Virtual VIP Computer Support, Business Change Coaching and Virtual Assistant Services
OnlineBlogTips
November 17th, 2009 6:21 am
Some people use to say that something is dead when they want to sell a new product, so don’t trust in everything that people say. Nice topic and i hope to see more videos posts! Thanks!
Blog Tips
November 17th, 2009 6:25 am
Email marketing will still be a great arsenal on bloggers and internet marketers now and in future time, you just have to make sure that you’re doing it right
Hope to Prosper
November 17th, 2009 6:32 am
I think getting readers to opt-in is critical. It is also critical to target the content properly. If you just start blasting marketing emails to people who have signed up for your newsletter, you will have a lot of unhappy people.
Ethan Bloch
November 17th, 2009 6:53 am
We can continue to innovate/create amazing web apps and services but we can’t hide from the fact that email is still the Internets killer app. It’s broken, has multitudes of drawbacks/problems, but it’s still uber effective.
Thoughts?
Jim Munro
November 17th, 2009 6:54 am
It’s not dead but it has changed a bit since it first started. Opt-in and not being spammed to death come to mind.
It may be more effective today since it is (or can be) much more targeted and coming from a trusted source (the actual content author).
Hopefully the disclosures will be a good thing. Way to be optimistic about it! :) But I think, Darren, you have been doing this for awhile already.
Thanks for the post.
Wayne Tully
November 17th, 2009 7:35 am
I think email marketing still has many uses and benefits and it’s still an extra string to catch in more readers, I like the way that email marketing can be used for email courses or updates in a newsletter format, although I’m still experimenting with it myself, I think it still is one of them all powerful marketing methods that we should not leave behind.
Eric B.
November 17th, 2009 7:38 am
Excellent post. If email marketing is done right, it can still be very useful ;)
Alice Anderson
November 17th, 2009 7:54 am
I think if done correctly, email marketing can be one of the most important parts of any business. By creating a mailing list, potential visitors/customers are giving your permission to contact them. When used respectfully and in a targeted way, it really gets attention for your site and/or product. Just today amazon sent me an email about deals on software packages I’d been researching and I clicked straight over and am preparing to buy. Targeted marketing, quality value added content, and respectful emailing practices are all key to email marketing success, I think.
Travis Campbell
November 17th, 2009 8:05 am
Love this. Those who believe email marketing is dead in their given market, are one less competitor for those who don’t feel that way.
Great interview Darren.
-Travis
Dean Sherwin
November 17th, 2009 8:13 am
Email marketing is by no means dead and I definitly agree with the video. The key to email marketing today is to differ from SPAM. In my opinion, making it past the reader’s morning ‘delete’ ritual is the best sign of a well crafted marketing email.
Dean
Http://artofstinginess.com
John Tanner
November 17th, 2009 8:34 am
Interesting article, I definately think email marketing is still useful, but would like to know your view on video email.
There are quite a few companies offering video email services, but maybe this is another debate.
Cheers
John
Banner Design
November 17th, 2009 9:36 am
Email marketing could still be an effective way to promote websites, regardless of their search engine traffic and ranking.
The important point in here is using the workable systems, sending out letters to the folks who have joined some newsletters and then would attempt reading the messages completely.
Needmoney.com
November 17th, 2009 9:42 am
It’s be interesting to see if the new FTC regulations actually start resulting in any prosecutions.
Eric C
November 17th, 2009 11:59 am
But email marketing cost money. When I have subscirbers and finanicial money scheme, I plan on going out there and setting up email marketing.
Ethan Bloch
November 17th, 2009 12:18 pm
@John Tanner problem with these video email services is they require the recipient to click and link leave their inbox = low conversion rates.
Additionally actually embedding video into an email is a nightmare re: email client support.
My thoughts, best to use as an added bonus or call to action and/or an additional tool you use once in a while.
Donny Gamble
November 17th, 2009 12:57 pm
Email marketing is still highly effective and it will be for quite sometime. It is proven throughout the history of the Internet that people like reading emails especially if they are from an elite blogger like Darren Rowse who always provides tremendous value in every post that he does.
sdhc
November 17th, 2009 2:10 pm
Great article. Its true that everyone has different needs and responds differently to each channel.
But what about the clutter? Email is becoming almost impossible to sort through sometimes, what about messages being lost or consumers getting so fed up with more email than they can handle?
Allan R.
November 17th, 2009 4:52 pm
To tell the truth I’am a little bit confused about how she asked her questions in the video.
Sometimes it seemed that she would drop her mic and run away..
I don’t know why I felt that :)
Tinh
November 17th, 2009 4:59 pm
I think email marketing can not be dead right now but in the near future. Twitter and social networking marketing would last for a long time
Annabel Candy
November 17th, 2009 10:57 pm
What ding bat said it was dead anyway? Are they brain dead?! Email marketing is the best way to market a website or blog and will remain so. Well, that’s what I think and now I’ve stuck my neck on the line:)
Zakk
November 18th, 2009 12:12 am
Well, as for me Email Marketing will never die as itself. It just changes its forms.
I’m running email marketing campaigns for 2 years, and I never get disappointed.
The best software I can advise is Email Studio.
You can check it up here – http://www.massmailsoftware.com/studio/
Gabe | freebloghelp.com
November 18th, 2009 12:57 am
Mmmm…FTC. Like many government regs, they issue a blanket statement initially just so they can say they’re thinking about the issue. It’ll be nice if they actually gave us any bit of detail.
Galvahaha
November 18th, 2009 1:37 am
Great post. I dont think email marketing will be going away anytime soon, and when executed correctly, it can be very powerful. Cheers
Buzzlord
November 18th, 2009 2:57 am
It’s not dead… everyone in the world just wishes it was.
Seriously, how many people read “opt-in” email? I know that there are a percentage of people who do and that’s why it works, but how do we reach the rest of the market?
Of course email marketing isn’t dead, but it’s been around forever. How do we reach the customers who are already wise to this?
Website Promotion Blog
November 18th, 2009 4:03 am
Emails are still widely used more conveniently by the majority of the people. I know many people who don’t know exactly what RSS is and how to subscribe to read some content through it.
On the contrary, I’m not aware of any single person who surfs the web and doesn’t use email for communications. New inventions should not make us forget that what’s well-established is a good platform to launch online marketing campaigns.
I’m totally for it and continue using it and have some plans to incorporate it into my marketing plan more seriously.
Ron Passfield
November 18th, 2009 10:04 am
It was great to hear Darren reinforce the value of email marketing. I have been using his approach for some time in sending out an ezine which provides links to my blog posts. I really need to set up Feedburner to capture more ezine readers via my blog – my main source of subscribers at present is via a lead capture page offering a free 9 day email course.
Ken
November 18th, 2009 1:15 pm
Darren,
Sounds like a good mix of content and ads. Looking forward to see what comes in the future. Email is definitely not dead!
William Reynolds
November 18th, 2009 3:30 pm
As others have said, email marketing is great when it’s targeted to the right audience and bundled with genuinely helpful and interesting information. If I think I’ll continue to benefit from receiving it, I probably won’t opt out. I may not hang onto it or forward it, but I’ll read it.
When I write newsletters for my copywriting clients, I always try to think outside the “offer of the month” and come up with expert articles that make that email a welcome arrival — and maybe even required reading!
work at home
November 18th, 2009 4:18 pm
I did not involve in email marketing. But I want to know about email marketing. Thank you for information on email marketing.
Technology Slice
November 18th, 2009 5:13 pm
Email marketing will never die as long as it is the primary from of personal communication.
Reza Winandar
November 18th, 2009 9:31 pm
I don’t like email marketing because it is too difficult for me to create the letter that can make people believe me that what I offer is true.
Gaddie
November 19th, 2009 9:33 am
Making money is not an easy task. It needs patience, tricky mind, focus, right moment and lots…I think
1kadayblogspot
November 19th, 2009 5:12 pm
Email marketing would never die till online markteting and work from home concepts are booming. There are many tatics which will enhance please visit our url www 1kadayhome blogspot com
Kerja Keras Adalah Energi Kita
November 19th, 2009 8:58 pm
i know the email marketing still running , but how to make it effective thats the bigger problems, ithink
Blogbooze
November 20th, 2009 12:22 am
Well i guess i’m not a big guy in blog arena to have email marketing
Ships
November 20th, 2009 6:11 am
E-mail marketing is never been death. Actually I do not like it and will never like it. It is spam. It is not wanted advertise in high percentage.
Actually it is quite useful and making money
emumbert1
November 21st, 2009 3:52 am
I have given it a lot of thought. Unsolicited email are the biggest pain the the arse for everyone I know. Opt in is good if you have a following. The trick is to develop that following like PotPieGirl or Jon Leger…and of course Pro Blogger. When those email hit my desk, I read and consider their value proposition. Also a link to a quick 2 minute video is great for teasing your product. That is the way email marketing will not die. Thanks, Darren.
Keep the great articles flowing!
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