If the question “is email marketing slowly dying”? makes you want to punch the air in delight, I am afraid your joy may be slightly premature. However, there are moves afoot to kerb the number of e-mails the general public and employees receive every working day.

Many companies and organisations across the globe have become concerned about the time their workers waste by opening and replying to e-mails, and to combat this they have taken steps to prohibit the use of e-mails. In some cases, it was discovered that workers wasted forty percent of their time opening and reading e-mails that added no value to their jobs. Forty percent equates to two wasted days each week.

So what is to be the nemesis of the ubiquitous e-mail?

Various tools have been developed to bridge the “social business gap.” These tools have made it possible for employees to share and access ideas and information across the organisation that employs them. Early results have indicated these programmes have immediately reduced the flow of e-mails by almost twenty percent in some companies.

However, as I said at the top of this article, now is not the time to start celebrating the elimination of the e-mail.

The “social business” apps only benefit enterprises with several hundred or thousands of employees. The self-employed or very small enterprises will still use e-mail. (My theory is that those who work for themselves or a very small organisation have more discipline when it comes to reading e-mails.)

I believe e-mail is a victim of its own success. In the early days, it was a boon to business people, but familiarity has bred contempt.

This is especially true of people who use (or try to use) email marketing for their businesses. Because it is free, they put no value on the messages they send. They believe any slapdash message will do, and send out thousands of e-mails that will be deleted before they are read. This method of marketing adds to the “fog” of e-mail spam that is turning many people off the medium.

Incorporating email with leaflet drops

People who are more experienced in marketing know the value of e-mail. Those who use door drop campaigns will often incorporate their e-mail address in their call to action and will request the e-mail addresses of those prospects who respond.

They also have another advantage over the spammers; they know how to produce a compelling and persuasive sales message.

Because leaflet distribution is not free, they know there is no room for complacency or slapdash writing. Leaflet distributors know the value of a concise and well-written sales message, with an eye-catching headline.

To achieve this they use the skills of good copywriting and graphic design. Everything is gone over with a fine-tooth comb to make sure the leaflet is error free and designed to do the job it was created for, to gather valuable leads.

As soon as the enquiries come through, they may start using e-mail as part of their selling technique, which is by no means a bad idea. But, they will make sure any messages they send to their prospects and customers will be well written.

So an email marketing campaign can be used as a valuable and important asset to a well-written leaflet distribution campaign, and another demonstration of how the channel of letterbox marketing can be used even more effectively by incorporating a derivative of the information superhighway.