Experts say e-mail marketing won't die soon: DMCNY

E-mail marketing is far from dead, but marketers will have to adjust to social media, a range of mobile devices, prioritized inboxes and new security concerns, said Anita Absey, SVP of global sales and services at Return Path, on February 10.

Absey told the Direct Marketing Club of New York's February luncheon that e-mail “is not dead, and is not going anywhere” as a marketing medium.

“Facebook's inbox will not kill e-mail,” she said. “But it will be an interesting place to converse with people.”

Absey's presentation to the DMCNY came days after comScore released statistics showing that Web-based e-mail use dropped 59% in December 2010, compared with the year before. ComScore also said in its “2010 US Digital Year in Review” that consumers adopted social networking at high rates throughout 2010.

Absey said marketers will have to adjust their strategies to use Facebook e-mail and added that video should be used “for a very compelling reason.” She added that e-mail security concerns, such as phishing and spam, will continue to be a nuisance for marketers in the near future.

Absey also said the creation of additional e-mail filtering systems, such as Google's Priority Inbox, is a potential game-changer for marketers because they can no longer assume recently sent messages will be near the top of the inbox.

“What we've been doing for the past 15 years, where the last one sent is on the top, that doesn't work anymore,” she said.