Death By Increased Email Volumes

[By Julie Katz]

Jeremiah just posted on his personal blog that email consumes him - and just about everyone he communicates with at work, on Twitter, via social networks, on blogs. You get the point. Both the volume of personal and marketing emails have increased dramatically since the medium's beginning, and the early adopters are poised to rebel. Yet few marketers and vendors I speak with are slowing down the pace or changing their practices to prepare for a backlash. Now, by backlash, I don't mean that the email world will go completely dark. But I do think marketers need to prepare for a more streamlined approach to direct communication online.

To that end, I have some new research coming out and a session at Forrester's upcoming Marketing Forum that gives marketers some steps to take to becoming more respectful of consumers' limited time.

Like Jeremiah, I'm also interested in comments from marketers and consumers on how you're managing email volumes and anything you've changed in your routine to a) better reach consumers via email (or another direct, interactive channel) or b) triage marketing-related or personal email messages. I, too, am in line for a Xobni beta account, so if anyone has an invite to share, please email me :-) I have managed to limit my own email volumes, despite signing up for every marketing email possible, by setting up a system of folders and flags.

Comments

[stasr]

julie,
i still have invites left for Xobni. let me know if you still want one.

[Bradjward]

Julie - let me know if you need a Xobni invite, or others in the office. I have 5 left.

[Robert Rosenthal]

Direct marketers who properly test email frequency may find it more profitable to blast less email. I outlined an approach in this Freaking Marketing post:

http://robertrosenthal.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/help-were-hamme.html