The Death of the Email Newsletter

Author:

Chris Marriott

Source:

The news has had its share of killers lately, hasn't it? Not to trivialize the various wars, disasters, and crimes happening around the globe, but I am actually talking about the killings declared by technology pundits: The iPad will kill the Kindle. Or the Kindle will kill paper. Or 3D TV will kill movies.
 
Typically, these pundits seize upon a technology or product that seems to have sputtered (in their imagination if not in reality) and imagine how a nascent technology will dislodge it. Had written language existed at the dawn of time, I'm sure a pundit would have written that the wheel would kill human feet.
 
Rather than predict how social networking or mobile communications will kill email, let's acknowledge that email marketing has grown substantially, even against competing channels and even during the recession. According to StrongMail, more than two-thirds of marketers plan to increase spending on email this year. As an industry, email marketing has not had a down year yet (knock on wood).
 
Of all the tactics used by email marketers, perhaps none enjoys as much popularity as the email newsletter, a regular mailing broadly distributed to the house list. Some newsletters focus on news and events while other focus partially or entirely on offers. Retailers in particular fall into the last category.
 
Marketers rely on newsletters because they cost relatively little and show immediate measurable results. Some marketers, in fact, never send anything but newsletters and have no complaints.
 
In short, newsletters could not display greater health as a marketing tool.
 
Needless to say, this situation demands someone to take a contrary point of view, so I appoint myself the official asker of "what if?" What if we killed the newsletter?...