The Experts Speak: E-Marketing Trends 2003
by Ruth Stevens

As the year draws to a close, I reflect on the changes we have seen during the year. In my observation, three trends characterized Internet marketing in 2002:

  1. Marketers focused on profits, realizing that every customer they bring into the business needs to represent value to the company. No more eyeballs for eyeballs' sake.
  2. E-marketing became part of an integrated multi-channel marketing and sales mix.
  3. Pay for performance emerged as the right way to test risky new media options.

But what's on the horizon for 2003? I polled some leading thinkers in the Internet marketing world to gather their thoughts.

Bryan Eisenberg, President of Future Now Inc.: Technology is going to change the behavior of email marketers once again. I am talking about the new spam control technologies and the release of Outlook 11, which will block HTML bugs. Marketers will have to focus on using email to deliver value, develop a genuine dialog with their customers and create real relationships. Marketers will move beyond mere transactions and promotions. You can only scream "SALE" so many times before you are simply ignored.

Bob Bly, Copywriter/Consultant: People have finally realized that an e-mail alone is NOT the electronic equivalent of a direct mail package. It's the e-mail PLUS the landing page that comprise the mail package equivalent.

Therefore, when people say long copy does not work, they are talking about the e-mail only. A discussion of copy length should include both the e-mail AND the landing page. And numerous tests over the last year have proved that, in the e-mail/landing page combo, long copy works for many products and offers.

Debbie Weil, Publisher, WordBiz Report: Email marketing, including e-newsletters, will continue to be a vital piece of the integrated marketing mix. But publishers and marketers will have to be even more careful about the quantity and quality of messages they send.

With spam literally zooming out of control, people are exquisitely sensitive to the contents of their inboxes. Email them too frequently and it's intrusive. Not frequently enough and they may no longer remember "opting in" to your communications.

Add to this the technical obstacles of getting legitimate emails delivered through the spam filters and blacklists, and you've got an even bigger challenge. It's ironic. Email was heralded as the killer app of direct marketing. But the very speed and ease with which email can be deployed is contributing to its downfall as an effective marketing tactic.

Sandra Barry, Director, Marketing Fuel: I see two trends emerging. First, companies are going to figure out that they need to develop guidelines and standards for email use in different areas of the business, from marketing to customer service and fulfillment. It's no longer sensible to run email on an ad-hoc basis here and there, without a coherent strategy enterprise-wide.

Second, it's my hope that companies will invest the time and energy required to develop customer contact strategies, and integrate their email communications with them. Companies who still operate in physical or cultural silos tend to view customer data as proprietary to each group, without realizing that, from a customer perspective, the brand is the brand. The best way to crack this nut is by creating cross-departmental marketing teams.

Larry Chase: Publisher, Web Digest for Marketers: The hot ticket items online are still email marketing and search engine marketing. In my neck of the woods, the successful email newsletter publishers are those who look at themselves and their business like their counterparts in the print newsletter arena. What this means on a practical level is:

  • Learning how to put a dollar value on each subscriber. How else can you know what to spend to acquire a new subscriber profitably?
  • Test to see which ancillary products sell best and at what price.
  • Figure out how best to generate revenue from list rental. There are plenty of options, each with its own pros and cons.

Jim Novo, The Drilling Down Project

  1. Onliners will realize that new-customer source plays an enormous role in understanding customer value. They will start tracking it, just as offline direct marketers have done for decades. Onliners will begin to understand that not all traffic is created equal, and that where the visitors come from is a key indicator of their future behavior.
  2. .Web analytics will take its place in driving website productivity. It is shocking how many companies have the software but either don't use it or don't look at the reports because they are full of geek-speak. The key is to set up the reporting to provide actionable information, not just data.
  3. Marketers will understand that customers don't want a relationship; they just want great service, interesting products, and sharp pricing—just as they always have.

Al DiGuido, CEO, Bigfoot Interactive

  • Automated email-based solutions, such as payment confirmations, billing alerts, and other triggered communications tied to individual profiles, will help marketers maintain a relevant dialog while driving dramatic efficiencies.
  • Strong ISP relationships will be critical for reputable email providers as they join their ISPs in fighting spam.
  • Marketers will leverage the power of email beyond corporate marketing and extend it to the local level. Distributed campaign management will improve sales and ROI while maintaining the integrity and relevance of the communications.

Reggie Brady, Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions, LLC
To me the "new idea" is multi-channel marketing, but from the much narrower focus of a tighter integration of email and phone. I've seen several marketers work this way, with some very telling results. People who receive an email and then call the 800 toll-free number in the email spend more than people who just link through to the web site. It makes sense; a good call center rep—armed with a transactional history on the customer—can cross-sell and up-sell the consumer during the course of the call. Armed with this finding, some savvy marketers are highlighting and promoting inbound calls in their emails.

John Ardis, Vice President, Corporate Strategy,ValueClick, Inc.
The best New Idea for 2003 is the Old Idea, namely, a return to direct marketing basics, the fundamental principles that have been time-tested and proven over decades. With the advent of the Internet, marketers were first infatuated with the technology, and then with pay-for-performance. The next step is to move to a balanced, integrated approach to Internet sales and marketing.

It's a return to understanding that there are no short-cuts, and that true success is striking the optimal balance between cost-effectiveness and volume.

It's a return to the hard work but great satisfaction that comes from developing hypotheses, designing tests around them, reading the tests, and then refining and rolling out.

It's a return to a mature approach to direct marketing, one that weighs long-term potential at least equally with immediate-term gains.

In short, it's a return to classic direct marketing..

Thanks much to a bunch of smart people for sharing their views. And stay tuned for reflections on 2003, coming soon.