Trend of declining email use continues, now pushing into business

Looked to me like a tactic to avoid having emails pop up in future litigation. And to avoid the expense of saving and storing those communications.

A company that size - you can be sure there are constant litigation demands regarding emails.

Using instant messaging instead of email? It only works if everyone is present at their computers at the same time and available and wanting to talk. Email allows a time differential so work is not interrupted with the need for immediate response.

Why use typed chat when one could pick up the phone!

(Unless you were wanting to keep using written communications but without the digital paper trail.)

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Could be. I know that Sarb-Ox certainly has impacted what gets retained inside of a company.

Well I think our particular problem isn't a platform-specific one. We just need to collaborate more.

Each of us certainly knows multiple ways to reach the other. Right? That's because we've given each other permission to do so based on a relationship status.

I can tell you that I would absolutely LOVE some form of efficient communication beyond email for my own personal productivity that everyone else could use.

Using email as a metadata wrapper for other digital assets within the context of Exchange and Outlook is really cumbersome.

Google has attempted to move the cheese with Gmail, Calendar, and Google Docs. Sadly, Docs is severely lacking, and the general resistance by a lot of companies to hand over corporate communication to Google is not necessarily unfounded.

For the average Joe though, even a cloud implementation of SharePoint is ultra cheap now (at least for the average business Joe). Rackspace charges $10/GB a month for storage for a full SharePoint Enterprise implementation. It's a matter of time before Amazon offers it via EC2.


I was recently at a tech event for SharePoint where one of the key presenters from AIIM (American Institute for Information Management... ISO for software companies) was touting a strategy to do exactly what Atos has done... shut off email in lieu of just creating an extemporaneous collaboration space inside of SharePoint.

Groupware is definately back en masse.

Email is a stupid solution for enterprise. If someone is working on a Word doc and sends in email to someone and CC's 10 other people, that creates 11 duplicate file attachments in the email server. That's just one aspect of the problem.

A while ago, I posted a topic (maybe a year ago?) about the decline in consumption of email over younger demographics. The rebuttal (as always from the cast of characters here) was "well, email isn't going anywhere because all those young people are going to get jobs at companies and then be forced to use email". This was, of course, the justification for the idea that email as a direct marketing platform wasn't going to go away.

I'm not suggesting that it's going away. No media format actually disappears. I even heard an NPR story last summer about a cassette tape-only record label for garage punk bands that shipped thousands of albums worldwide last year. Of course, the idea being that the cassette medium provides that thin, mid-high frequency response characteristic that is common to a lot of punk bands from the early 80s.

What I AM suggesting is that if your avoidance of the idea that email is going away is that enterprise is going to come to the rescue, then 1) you aren't likely aware of the amount of money spent by enterprise with companies like Barracuda to filter out anything but legitimate, company business-related communication; and, 2) you're simply unaware of the swelling trend being promoted by best-practices entities like AIIM to influence the exact action taken by Atos across all of enterprise IT.

Pull marketing is definately the hard trend, and it's accelerating. The term "demand generation" is the "next big thing" in the large corporate marketing offices and large agencies.

No, push isn't dead. However, by virtue of the waning of the media formats and sheer refusal to accept interruption (yeah you really watch all those commercials you Tivo'd along with your show didn't you), it's days are seriously numbered.

That being said, database marketing will continue to be effective because the connection medium between the database and the customer is technically irrelevant. If you have sufficient contact data (based on sufficient purpose and intent of both parties) you can reach people in a multiplicity of mediums. As long as you're connecting your database hub to the audience through whatever current, relevant technology trend might be, you're good to go.

But if you're EMAIL ONLY AROUND THESE PARTS mentality, I think you might be in for a rude awakening over the next 2-3 years.

I realize that "long term business thinking" for the average internet marketer is "what can I do this week for a hustle", but for those who are genuinely interested in building a sustainable business model for the long haul, these issues have to be taken into consideration.

You mean there's lots of scripting opportunity for techs to create middleware layers to connect various disconnected data warehouses and APIs together?

Why, I bet an enterprising person could create a cloud-based service that connects commonly used SaaS applications together with previously unavailable middleware services on a subscription basis.

I even bet there's enablement frameworks already out there to help achieve that

paas Platform As A Service... Azure... etc...

Integrative communication seems to work best.

Blog - RSS feed - Email autoresponder - Occasional
personal email - Letter in the mail - SMS - social
media (tweets, FB Wall posts, private messages) -
Forums

If I kept more reasonable hours, Skype, phone and
mobile would be options to add to the mix.

For most of my best clients and closest online friends,
I've noticed our communication shifts across media and
channels.

As far as how it impacts marketing, something I re-read
last night gave me pause for thought. It was a Seth
Godin blog post from 2009 - 'First, ten'

I can handle multi-channel communication with ten!

Thanks for sharing that link, Mike - and for the ways
in which you're making me think lately. Keep blogging,
too - I'm sure many others like me missed you!

All success
Dr.Mani

I'm teach local politicians to use mobile apps. They get their
constituents to download these to their smart phones, and share
them with friend, and it becomes effortless for politicians to
reach out and remind voters to get out and vote... incessantly

In the last election, in my area, the phones went crazy. If those
messages had been pushed out to people who downloaded apps
at some political rally, they would have been many times more
powerful.

Even those who don't read much, or own computers, have their
cell phones with them everywhere that they go.

Willie

Numerous people, including some of my customers, do it
everyday :-)

Willie

I suspect it becomes easier when you think about integrating SMS (and other forms
of communication) but go beyond "campaign" and think longer term. Much longer
term.

It boils down to a question of 'permission' - and choice.

Will they permit you to contact them in one way - or not?
Do they prefer to interact with you in one way - or not?

If the ONLY way you offer is one they won't permit, or prefer to communicate,
your only choice is to abandon that prospect (or group).

By providing multiple options, and letting THEM (your prospects) choose, you open
the door to many more relationships. In time, those lead to something more.

The risk, of course, is that it may not, at least all the time!

The benefit, of course, is that you're proof against email going poof!!!

All success
Dr.Mani