Email doesn't work?

I recently visited one of my favorites sites for e-marketers and ran across and article entitled; “Why email marketing doesn’t work!” My first reaction was to jump on the defensive, because as an email marketing professional, I take great offense to such an absurd statement. After realizing that the article was merely a plug for an email marketing alternative, I quickly decide that it would be better to simply point out just a few pros to using email marketing. This is what I had to say…

Some really good reasons on why email marketing DOES work

1. Customer Relationship Management – Email marketing is a great tool for customer retention and customer communications. Why? Because it can be extremely cost effective compared to call centers, or even traditional direct mail campaigns.
2. Targeted Reach – For retail companies, email marketing is a great way to remind, or inform, customers of the great products, promotions, or services that your company may provide. If done correctly, the effectiveness and reach could make for a very profitable campaign.
3. Cost efficiency – Email is great way to communicate to regions where the local infrastructure does not support traditional mail or communication, efficiently. For instance one of my clients that is a VERY large transportation company based out of Atlanta, only communicates with customers in the Asia-Pacific region through email. Why? Because it’s targeted, and much more cost effective than sending letters or developing out a multi-million dollar call center, or even outsourcing those call center needs to local providers.
4. Sales Growth – Email marketing is a great way to up-sell and cross-sell existing or potential customers. The fact is targeted and personalized messages, based off of customer behavior has proven to be an effective way to generate additional sales and sales opportunities.
5. Viral and Flexible – Also, email marketing offer the flexibility of personalization, but can be an extremely effective way to go viral. If an email has the right promotion, a recipient may just forward that information on to a friend that may be in the market for your product or service, even if the original recipient is not. It’s the next best thing to word of mouth, which is one of the most effective ways of marketing. I mean when was the last time someone re-mailed a direct mail piece. Never! It just doesn’t happen.
6. Highly Effective – Lastly email marketing can be effective without large lists. Of course many email marketers would love to have a large list to blast messages to, because it increases their reach, but I can’t think of a single marketer who wouldn’t love a list of 10,000 people where, 50 to 60% actually took an action on the mailing as opposed to a list of 100K and only 3 to 5% actually even opened the mailing. Why? Because it’s about relevance not volume. Buying a list may increase your volume, but it will do little for your effectiveness, and will surely hurt a consumer’s confidence in your brand.

I could probably think of at least 10 more reasons why email marketing “works” but I’m starting to think that this article is merely here to plug an alternative. That is ok, I just think that taking an obviously biased opinion for a site devoted to e-marketers is just a quick way to get criticized or ignored, but hey maybe that’s what you are going for. Nonetheless interesting perspective. I’ve heard someone say the same thing about SEO, buying ads, creating affiliate programs etc, but the true marketer will use a variety of mediums to find the best marketing mix. That’s Marketing 101.

What do you think? Was the article out of line, was it simply biased, or do you think that there are some solid points in what the author had to say? Let me know, and I will shed more light on what APML is… after the break.