188 billion email messages sent each day?! That’s a boatload of email!

We concur with the Infographic’s conclusion—email is here to stay. However, email is not always the most effective way to transmit your message. New(er) technologies—like Facebook and Twitter—introduce additional ways for humans to communicate. Think about what you’re trying to accomplish and select the best media available to you.

Email gets a deserved bad rap from marketing campaigns and spammers pushing unwanted messages that ignore communication fundamentals—such as this basic truth: the receiver must want to receive the message sent!

When your emails are written to be personal, with timely, relevant information the receiver really wants, they can help you build relationships one-to-one. Make your emails better and create relationships using VisibleGains.

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Embed this image on your site:
<a href=”http://www.visiblegains.com/is-email-dead” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.visiblegains.com/Portals/54582/Infographics/visiblegains-emaildead.png” alt=”Is Email Dead? [Infographic]” width=”550″ border=”0″></a><BR><div> courtesy of <a href=”http://www.visiblegains.com/”>Visible Gains</a></div>

David Meerman Scott just launched his revised & updated book The NEW RULES of MARKETING & PR (Click to buy).  If you haven’t read it you should.

In it David talks about the creation of a video category called business casual (page 252). He explains that video in all its forms need not be the high production difficulty and cost you’ve come to expect from “formal video”.  David goes on to make several points

1. You can produce simple low cost engaging content that works/converts.
2. Do not create poorly shot video, with bad lighting and editing – there is a baseline.
3. He is “convinced that the trend towards casual content means that consumers want to get closer to the organizations they do business with”.
4. Informal “telling it like it is – will make us more efficient”

One additional learning that David and our customers have stressed is -

Trust.

Business Casual video is honest. You’re standing out there on your own with no fancy backgrounds nor teleprompter.  People love the directness and the honesty that comes through the simple format.  We find that people appreciate it and are therefore willing to advance to conversation with such a forthright individual that’s focused on the content delivered.

Never forget that no matter how produced your video is – the content must be authentic and engaging. That is what converts visitors. The business casual content is easily produced on small high definition capable cameras (Cisco Flip, Kodak Zi8) that are simple to use and cost less than $80 to purchase. The quality is fantastic and as of this post Flip cameras are still online for sale.

Here is an example of business casual video content –

Today, when visitors see this business casual content they find it genuine and engaging. The results are excellent and the more you do it the easier it gets.

Bad First Date

There are many companies out there that provide the ability to create drip campaigns in marketing automation platforms (see: Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, Silverpop). Supporting this capability are many sources that will refer to statistics.  These statistics say that anywhere from 7 and 20 repeats are required for any communication to gain consideration access.   Interestingly enough a personal dating stat from VIDA (Virtual Dating Assistant)  gave an “estimate of between 5 and 15 emails” before a meeting in person was accomplished.

After all thats what we are trying to do right?..get that first meeting (date)?

More often than not drip campaigns are still created in an impersonal way and its difficult to “fake” an engagement attempt.  Marketers are considering it a time saving device as opposed to a conversation with people. Most marketers will try to change messages based on profiles, activities with varying offers creating more and more as the campaign progresses.  Drips need to be thoughtful and comprehensive based upon participants within the actual campaign in a well thought out manner.  If your just going to link a bunch of templates together, don’t – you won’t win a lot of fans – nor get a second date (unless your lucky).

I speak from personal experience (names are not used to protect the guilty).  I received an email after I requested a download from a site that I was interested in.  I have no problem filling in a form for a company that I would like to stay linked to.  The first email was the obligatory “Thanks” and was totally expected.  The second arriving a day later was way off topic to anything I was interested in.  The third (arriving the next day) was an offer I’m not ready for yet. The forth got annoying as I’m unclear if they really understand what I was looking for.  The fifth made me opt out as it had nothing of value.  As a consumer and a seller its on both of us to uncover whether we are a match. Sending a generic marketing mail is not going to help me make a decision unless you address MY concerns. One to one communication will work as long as it’s specific, relevant, and timed properly.

Please end the torture, treat me like a human being not a notch in you sales/marketing belt. I want a relationship not a date and if its a fit, great… otherwise move on.