Emails are the worst. And that’s on a good day, from a good friend. But when your inbox is flooded with spam emails and promotions from companies you’ve never even heard of, let alone remember opting into, it begins to feel like a Sisyphean hell.
As it turns out, these spammy email blasts that clutter your inbox don’t even really work. No matter how clever, witty, or relevant email marketers think they are making their emails, it’s useless. The email marketing industry is slowly dying. Not because spam filters are getting better or the writers are getting worse. Email marketing is dying a slow death because people aren’t using email like they used to…or at all in some cases.
Workflow shift
In the last five years, there has been a large shift away from using email in the workplace and it’s only the beginning. Internal communication has moved to Slack, Salesforce’s Chatter, and other instant messaging systems like GChat. The key here is instant. Email is slow and relying on it is a time-suck that slows processes.
Companies are slowly but steadily shifting to methods of communication that run at the same pace as their busy workday. And this is seen in even more extreme cases for companies who are creating products and physically moving instead of sitting at a desk. When you have to product test or check the quality of packaging before something gets shipped, you need to be able to have instant communication at the tip of your finger. Luckily, Slack and other systems like it use mobile apps that make their services as accessible as texting.
All of these lends to mutual agreements within companies to abandon email and rely on quicker modes of communication.
From the outside looking in, email is generally not people’s go-to either. The younger generations are turning to social media to communicate with companies. Most of the new-age consumers don’t necessarily trust that there is a human on the other side of the computer waiting to respond to a customer service email.
They also turn to social media as a source of transparency and social culpability. If I complain over an email, I’m not so sure I’ll be taken seriously or even get a response. But when I tweet in front of your entire audience about an issue, I know you will want to right the wrong to save face.
So, the importance of email is very quickly becoming a thing of the past. How can you help your company adapt?
How to adapt
Many companies, however, still function off email, whether it’s used for internal communication or the company to make revenue from email ads. If you’re a part of the latter, you are at a pivotal point in your career.
You can continue on sending emails no one reads, or you can find a way to adapt. Adapting may be more obvious than we realize. The next turn for email marketing will be creating ads for workflow apps, like Slack and Basecamp, the online taskmaster.
The first person who can secure a partnership with one of these companies will have a massive leg up. Although, it won’t be easy. Since there is a precedent that these apps are pure workspaces where you won’t be bogged down with ads, apps won’t be quick to accept these partnerships. How you persuade them is your next big challenge.
