Mobile = email marketing dying

OR.... People who continue to execute poorly structured email campaigns time and time again amazingly expect different results each time.

Solution: use mobile optimised emails and landing pages.

Ah well. Don't do email marketing then.

Leave it to all of us who are actually using email marketing and converting better than it ever has.

These 'death of' threads are just pointless.

Losers give up. Smart marketers just adapt to changes.

Emails still get opened whether on a mobile or computer. People can now check their emails more often and when on the move. So if anything, it's working better if done the right way!

Most people whose email lists I have signed up to are doing email marketing WRONG. They are trying to get me to buy something immediately and I tune those OUT COMPLETELY.

The people who are doing it right provide me information of REAL VALUE about once a week, and get me back to their site, then they use their site to teach me something, and in the process of teaching me something, they generally explain the value of something that costs money, via a demonstration and suggest that if they are providing me value, at some point, maybe I would return them the favor by using one of their affiliate links to buy something they have shown me that we both believe has value. Funny thing, it works.

I think you are totally getting it wrong, OP. Whats wrong with people opening emails through their mobiles? I think this is a good thing as what you are not noticing here is due to mobiles, people are opening emails much more often. So there are much more chances of your email to be opened.

Every marketing strategy changes with time. Real marketers are those who adapt those changes and optimize thieir set of actions to better optimize their compaigns. We having been hearing "SEO is dead" for years but still there are countless people out their killing it with SEO. So the problem is, those who cant put their own twist into something to make it work for them, just go on saying XX method is dead. Thats how I see it.

(With exception to ringtones and movies) Who buys things on their smartphone!!?? Or tablets!? Doesn't happen...not yet anyway, so stop your crying.

Email marketing is not dying, it is still the most profitable channel out there for online marketing, BUT because almost 50% of emails are opened on mobile (many stats have shown this to be the case), and it is harder to sell on mobile, you have to adapt to the environment. Facebook have done it when they adapted their mobile business to suit the environment. They experienced a similar problem because most of us use Facebook on mobile and it was hard to get the mobile business profitable, but they have done it with their mobile ad sales.

Email opens are remaining steady because people are checking email more often on the move, but stats also show people click on links in email almost HALF as often on mobile devices. MailerMailer, the email marketing company, and others have reported such stats. So if you are getting 500 clicks from desktop users, you will get around 250 clicks from your mobile users. This is not cut and dried of course, it is only a reflection of the status of email marketing - still very profitable, but you have to adapt to the changes.

The first way to adapt to this is to create mobile optimized squeeze pages and sales pages. I currently have mobile versions of all of my squeeze pages set up and I have set up an identifier to show which of my subscribers signed up on a mobile device. The stats don't lie, more than a quarter signed up on a mobile device.

The second way to adapt is to really optimize your traffic generation, by lowering your cost per subscriber and at the same time getting more subscribers to your list. The way to do this is to scale those marketing methods that work.

The third way to adapt is to provide more value and personality in your emails. Differentiation is even more important now. Taking time to write compelling and curiosity-inducing subject lines is even more vital. Create or promote quality products.

The fourth way to adapt is to simply send more emails if necessary (maximum 1-2 per day) to cover those subscribers who open emails on mobile devices but don't click. This way, when they get to a desktop or laptop and they are more focused on what they are doing in the inbox, then they are more likely to click on the links in your email and take action. As has been said, people are not likely to click on links, let alone read the emails when they are in a restaurant with someone else on the other side of the table, or even if they are waiting for the doctor or basically just being distracted by the outside world. You also want to be there for people at their point of need, you never know when they will need a dating product, make money product or any other solution. It could be at any time of the week. So you want to be there in the inbox often.

The fifth way to adapt that many marketers have been doing is to sell solo ads. Since clicks are harder to convert (for sales pages) on mobile devices, you can earn on the click by selling solo ads. Most solo ad sellers only allow buyers to promote squeeze pages because it is better to build a list than to waste a lot of clicks by sending it to a sales page. You can sell 100-2000 clicks or more for say $0.30 to $0.40 per click, and then you are not wasting those mobile clicks, or even desktop clicks, as you are now earning per click. Some people are selling solo ads everyday, myself I would recommend selling 2-3 solo ads per week at the most. That's what I do but it's up to you to design your business model. The subscribers are still buying, but mostly when they get to a desktop/laptop, so you don't want to waste those mobile clicks. Of course, EPC (earnings per click) will determine whether you sell more products or sell more solo ads, or just concentrate on one side of the business.

The sixth way to adapt is to do ad swaps with other marketers and promote each other's squeeze pages. As mentioned in the fifth way, you don't want to waste those mobile clicks or even non-buyer clicks (people will buy but they will not buy all of the time. Even if I like a marketer's products, I will buy at most a few products per year and will not buy every day or every week.), so you can leverage the clicks and get subscribers from your ad swap partner promoting your squeeze page. At the end of the day again, EPC will determine whether you send more for ad swaps/solo ads or promoting products.

The seventh way to adapt is to make sure your emails go to Gmail's Primary Tab instead of the Promotions Tab. Many emails from autoresponders are now going into the Primary/Updates Tab (if Updates tab is turned on, but the default setting is that is not), but you cannot include the subscriber's "more private" details like their IP address in the email and use other language like "disclaimer", "disclosure" and also words like "subscribed", "subscriber" more than once because emails with these details are ending up in the Promotions Tab. And those emails are virtually unseen on the Gmail app. They are on another tab and people will not click on that tab or just click on it once and then go back into the Primary tab.

The eighth way to adapt is to use multiple channels to communicate with your subscribers and customers. Multi-channel marketing is the way to go these days. You can use Facebook Pages, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, SMS marketing, apps, push notifications from apps, Dropbox apps and so on.

It's not necessary to use all of the above methods, but just use some of these methods and the gap will be closed considerably.

Fabian

I think if you are doing the right way, it still is successful. I hear people say it is still profitable.

Dont put all your eggs in one basket... utilise all of the avenues...

The OP has a point: more and more people do open their emails from their phone while waiting for the bus, but almost nobody watches a 20-minute sales video (let alone swing a credit card) while indeed waiting for the bus.

It's not about whether your email marketing techniques are good or not. It's just about the medium not being that conversion "friendly".

That doesn't mean that email marketing is dying, but it'd be foolish to not admin that it's less effective than a few years ago.

One day all emails will be dead, it will all come down to the cell phone and sms message.

I don't believe email marketing is dying. Think about how you yourself react to emails.

If a marketer is using cold-blooded cut and paste garbage - I just unsubscribe.

Those with a good reputation get my attention. I'll even read through a very long sales pitch if it is relevant. For instance, anything from PPG is interesting - because over the years she has learned to take care of her list!

Anyway emails get opened on mobile devices - I just saw my wife use her smartphone to answer all her emails!

My two cents worth.
Steve

Converting offers via email has become tougher than ever for spammers, because they keep getting blacklisted by sending them to me

Converting offers via email to people who trust you is as easy as it ever was :p

The only people that claim email marketing is dead or dying always seem to be selling the solution to the problem they are claiming exists. Or soon will be.

Or they have been brain washed by these people to spread their words of doom and gloom for them.

The above goes for 99.9% of all [fill in the blank] is dead or dying threads, responses, blog posts etc...

Re's
Rob Whisonant

This is laughable. Why do people always think email is dying.

Do you know that email is still the highest ROI in digital marketing?

Second is SEO and 3rd is PPC.

I think social media is in the middle and mobile is last.

Point being, email marketing works and is not dead. What is dead is the people sending the emails.

Email marketing still works, if it isn't working for you, then either the product you offer is useless or you need to learn list building better way.

I don't see what's the problem, it just means your emails can now reach them anywhere, instead of waiting days for them to log onto a computer

I personally read my emails from my Cellphone, and when something interest me, I log in to buy or what whatever. When I send out a broadcast, I notice that I get clicks almost instantly, and that is from people on their mobile

They wait till they go home, I mean come on dude, that is not "common sense" that is a stupid way of thinking. The only things people buy from their cellphone is ringtones and games, everything else they wait till they go home.

I am starting to wonder why you started this thread, I think you are just a quitter and want an easy button like Staples

When you send out a broadcast, you want people to open them right away, and cell phones make that possible. Your email will get buried by others, by the time someone logs into a computer...

Cellphones send people rushing to their computers, that wouldn't have otherwise been on there.