It’s been exactly 3 months since the  October 12, 2009 Wall Street Journal article Why Email No Longer Rules…And what that means for the way we communicate touched off a mini-firestorm in the marketing world.  This article wasn’t the first on the topic but really more of a culmination.  It seems for much of 2008 and 2009 there were many similar articles, in newspapers, industry pubs, blogs, etc.  And yet, if my inbox since then, the back-end analytics results we see, and the accompanying graph from Forrester Research here are indicators –- The rumors of email’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Before we get too far, let’s start with a couple numbers.  According to The Direct Marketing Association’s Power of Direct Report, Email marketing continues to demonstrate the highest ROI of all direct marketing channels, including search.  According to the report, email returned $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009. While that is down $1.31 from 2008, it still far outpaces the ROI of PPC search advertising, which with an ROI of $21.85 is the next most effective.

So what does this mean to you?  Well if you have read anything on Marketing Trenches you’ll know that I’m probably going to work the word strategy into this post a half dozen times before I’m through (OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration).  But, email deserves strong consideration as a part of that strategy.  Notice I say a part, because your other components are critical as well, and the most successful approaches are truly integrated.

Instead of choosing one channel over another because it has the highest surveyed ROI metrics, look at ways to use these together.  As an example, many of the top Email Service Providers (ESPs) offer Share With Your Network (SWYN) features now, integrating social network sharing tools into your email marketing.  If you aren’t working with a top ESP right now you should be – the half a penny you may save on a send just isn’t worth what you are sacrificing.

From an integrated marketing perspective, your email subscriber base and ROI from that base is likely to grow when you are using marketing channels like search (both Paid and Organic/SEO), social media and other online and offline marketing in a more holistic, integrated way, reaching your prospects and customers in multiple places and increasing your overall marketing ROI.

With the recent flip of the calendar, now is as good a time as any to reevaluate how email fits into your interactive and overall marketing plan.  Because trust me, email is alive and kicking.

What are your recent experiences with email marketing?  I’d love for you to add them in the comments below.

About the Author: Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow@willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.

It’s been three weeks since I wrapped up teaching a course covering Interactive Marketing at Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies.  The topic for our last session was a doozy – social media, and in particular how social media can be used to achieve business or career-related objectives.

I saved Twitter for the latter part of the lecture, thinking that its stature as the hottest and yet most misunderstood social media property would generate some lively discussion.  I started with a very simple question:

Who here uses Twitter either personally or professionally?

Of the 18 students, 6 hands went up.  That’s it.  Only one-third of a group of mostly young professionals using Twitter?  And here I thought Twitter, much like an iPhone, was a status badge for the 20 – 40 something marketing professional crowd.  The follow-up question was an obvious one:

OK.  For those of you who don’t use Twitter, why not?

And the responses:

Student 1:  I already have Facebook, I don’t need another one. (I don’t even need the first Facebook.)

Student 2:  I don’t need to know what everyone is eating for breakfast. (Ah…the most common refrain from anti-Twitter folks.)

Student 3: I don’t have the time.  Who does? (As it turns out, quite a few…like in the millions.)

Student 4: I see these people – professionals – that tweet all day.  Sometimes every half hour, sometimes every 5 minutes.  How the hell does a person generate income when they’re tweeting their day away?  (I love this one, and often wonder the same thing.)

These responses generated a lot of side chatter and giggles.  As the Twitter-bashing calmed, I made the following statement:

You guys are absolutely right.  Twitter is not for everyone, and not built for every purpose.  However, at this moment, the business value of Twitter – if used appropriately – is indisputable.  That may change as Twitter goes through the typical flooding stage, but again right now the business value is indisputable.

Wow, I just got queasy writing that.  Did I really just represent that a business or a businessperson using Twitter is the proverbial “no brainer”?

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In my initial post on the B2B lead generation topic, I wrote:

This is the first in a series of posts that will address the creation and execution of a B2B lead generation program in a step-by-step manner.  We’ll post another tip each week, and when the series is complete we’ll compile all the tips into one document and distribute.

That was October 16^th, 2009.  Oops.

My apologies for the programming interruption, but we’re back on track.  For those that missed the first few posts in this series, here they are:

B2B Lead Generation Step #1: Start With the Right Mindset

B2B Lead Generation Step #2: Build a Strong Roster of Stakeholders

B2B Lead Generation Step #3: Identify the Metrics that Matter

Let’s get into the 4^th step, which involves messaging.  The good news is that we’re seeing a healthy shift to a metrics-focused mindset amongst B2B lead generation marketers.  While that mindset may elicit a “No duh Mike, lead generation is all about the numbers” response from some, the truth of the matter is that until a few years ago, the metrics-centric mindset wasn’t that prevalent.

That brings us to the bad news.  Somewhere along the way, many lead generation marketers forget about the importance of the core message and the value it brings to lead generation efforts.  While the message is only one of many moving parts in B2B lead generation, it’s a critical piece that must be addressed.

When messaging is ignored in the lead generation program building process, the most common cause is an impatient executive with a “no one cares about the message” attitude, and of course the program administrator/leader who accepts that attitude and proceeds to ignore the messaging component.

Given that the executive we’re referring to is often times a strong and influential stakeholder in the process, let’s figure out a way to address messaging without offering the impression that you want to overhaul every web page, press release, brochure, video and tweet ever created.

My guess is that there are hundreds if not thousands of approaches to message development.  I’ll offer up the two that work best in the circles we travel in.

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