The Future of Email Marketing

Tom Kulzer is CEO of AWeber Communications and he recently took a few minutes to chat with Bryan Haines.

Bryan: Where do you see the email marketing industry in 5 years from now?

Tom: Over the next 5 years I see a continued trend towards more granular reputation and engagement measurement along with more sophisticated tools for subscriber segmentation to better engage those interested in specific topics.

Bryan: Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, has really changed how we communicate. How has this change affected your business?

Tom: I can't say that it has changed our business that dramatically. We were already very engaged with our customers around the world prior to both Facebook and Twitter being available. It has expanded the number of sites that we interact and engage with clients on, but it really hasn't changed the conversation.

It has also expanded our product offering as we now have tools that integrate with both services.

Bryan: Are email lists typically larger or smaller than social media followings, such as Facebook fans, or Twitter followers? Are they typically the same people in both groups?

Tom: It certainly depends on the industry, but even in 2011 most social media followings are only about 5-20% the size of a typical email marketing following. Whether the groups overlap again, depends on the industry but it's common to see more than 50% of the followings being the same people.

Bryan: What’s the most important component of an email marketing campaign?

Tom: That's a great question and my answer is probably not one you'll frequently hear. I believe the most important part of an email marketing campaign is your subscribe form and the first message that a new subscriber receives. Both are key to setting the expectations of what is to follow. The key expectation points to drive home are the frequency of the messages you are going to be delivering and the type of valuable content you will be sending. Campaigns that don't set those expectations are nearly guaranteed failure right from the start because your audience has no incentive to sign up. If they do make the leap of faith and sign up they have no idea what they are going to receive and are thus much more likely to be unengaged causing reputation problems for you.

Tom Kulzer is CEO of AWeber Communications and he recently took a few minutes to chat with Bryan Haines.