Besieged by anti-spam laws and rising consumer mistrust, e-mail marketers and list professionals say that despite it all, prospecting isn’t dead.
Several e-mail veterans gathered recently at Direct’s offices to discuss the issues and challenges they face. Those in the consumer space have adapted to falling response rates by prospecting through additional channels and becoming hyper-concerned about consumer privacy. Meanwhile, business-to-business e-mailers have enjoyed steady response rates as long as they continued to invest in sustaining quality.
Spam and legislation enacted to combat it are the next hurdles all e-mail marketers must overcome. Though they hope for a reasonable federal anti-spam law, the newly signed California statute could have a crippling effect on their businesses. So they’re developing tactics to cope with it, and long-term strategies to sidestep spam in the long run.
Bottom line: These pros believe that e-mail not only will survive these onslaughts, but will thrive once again.
(Note: The roundtable was held before the Senate voted on the Can-Spam Act, the federal anti-spam bill.)
Moderator: Ben Isaacson, privacy and compliance leader, Experian
Jay Schwedelson, corporate vice president, Worldata
Michelle Feit, president, e-Post Direct
Mark Evans, director of database and direct marketing services, CBS Sportsline.com
Geoff Smith, director of direct marketing, Software of the Month Club
Brad Shapiro, vice president of marketing and sales, Date.com
Chris Meerschaert, refinance marketing manager, Quicken Loans
ISAACSON: How effective is e-mail prospecting for marketers today?
MEERSCHAERT: I think the responsiveness to e-mail campaigns has a lot to do with not only the list but the industry you’re in. In the mortgage industry, response rates have declined. Specifically in that business, as legislation continues to pass and consumers become more inundated with e-mail, we’re probably going to fade away from e-mail the way we did with postal mail. Fewer people will use e-mail because response rates are diminishing and return on investment is decreasing. But marketers will start to get back into it. And hopefully, we’ll see a resurgence of e-mail as an acquisition tool.
ISAACSON: Are marketers still prospecting?
SCHWEDELSON: It depends on the category. Business-to-consumer is very different from business-to-business. In B-to-B, marketers are still using e-mail very effectively as an acquisition tool. On the consumer side, there are certain categories that are no longer performing well at all
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