A few days back I asked the question, is email marketing dead? The conversation that sparked had a range of opinions. Some felt it is dead, some that it’s very much alive. Others agreed that it’s evolving. Read the comments and add your two cents, if you like.
One side conversation that developed from ask whether email marketing is dead was whether email marketing is a form of interruption marketing.
Personally, I think it is. So let’s begin on the same foot by defining interruption marketing. Basically, interruption marketing is any tactic used to market anything that works only if they (the marketers) interrupt your life to get� your attention. In other words, interruption marketing is just that - it interrupts you and what you’re doing and steals away your time.
If we consider email marketing in that light, how is it not a form of interruption marketing?
Is spam email included, absolutely! Spam is the poster child for interruption marketing. You end up on a spammer’s list and they bombard you with a bunch of stuff you neither want or are interested in. The spam that doesn’t get caught by your spam filter certainly interrupts your life because you, at the very least, have to deal with it.
But let’s leave spam out of the discussion. I’d rather talk about the gray area that exists around ezines, enewsletters, event updates, sales pitches, etc - what’s often called permission marketing - where marketers will ask permission before they send advertisements to prospective customers.
So can permission marketing be interruption marketing?
I certainly think so. And it comes down to the definition above - interruption marketing being any tactic used to advertise that requires interrupting your life to get your attention. Isn’t that what email marketing does?
Think about it, you’re waiting for an email from a client or customer. You’re on the phone and they’ve just sent it. You check your email and you have three messages - the first is spam, the second is from your client and the third is an ezine that you signed up for months back.
Now you’re only looking for one email - that from your client. Yet you get three. The spam, definitely an interruption. The client message - what you’re looking for. The ezine - you may have given your email address to receive, but did you ask it to arrive at this very moment in time? Probably not. That would make it an interruption.
You see, whenever you receive an email that’s marketing something at a time you either don’t want it or don’t expect it, it’s an interruption. If it falls into your inbox, it requires your attention. What you do with it - read it, delete it, file it, leave it - is irrelevant. The fact is you’ve received the ezine at a time you didn’t want or expect to receive it.
Now let’s be clear, I’m not saying is that interruption marketing is bad, wrong, immoral or unethical. Interruption marketing is simply what it is - an interruption in your life to gain your attention.
The question is, do you appreciate your life being interrupted by ezines, enewsletters, sales pitches, early-bird discounts, product releases, event updates, etc?
And if you’re an email marketer (which I am, by the way), how affective is your email marketing strategy for growing your business? Have you noticed any change in how people respond over the past 18 months?
And if you’d like to see a great example of how interruption marketing is making people feel today, take a watch of this video.
(note: image from Sebastiano Pitruzzello (aka gorillaradio) on Flickr)
My name is Dawud Miracle and I'm a
47 responses so far ↓
Hmmm… I see what you’re saying, Dawud, but I don’t experience it like that at all.
Most of the ezines I subscribe to get filtered into subfolders, so even if they arrive at the same time as the above mentioned client email, they don’t interrupt my life at all.
They don’t get in the way of my client email. They don’t slow down my receiving the client email (well, maybe by a fraction of a second of additional downloading time).
I get that you aren’t saying that interruption is bad or wrong- that it can be ethical and useful- but I just don’t experience it as an ‘interruption.’ As I said in the other thread, I experience phone calls, door knocks, billboards in the sky, pop-up ads- things that insert themselves between me and where I’m wanting to put my attention.
The email newsletters I receive just don’t do that, except in the teensiest, weensiest way. If you want to be technical, I guess you could make an argument for it, but it’s just not my daily experience.
Hi Dawud,
I agree with Mark. It doesn’t have to be ‘Interrupt marketing”, but I suppose it depends on how organised you are!
I organise my ‘recreational activities’, such as ezines, newsletters etc into an e-mail address just for that job.
It’s easy to monitor a number of e-mail addresses, and you can choose whether your day can accommodate a lot of interruptions or not.
It’s really no different to having a different folder in a filing cabinet, where you put all the marketing stuff that you will read in an idle moment.
So if you’re organised, then distracting e-mails will never distract you:-)
p.s. If I’m really busy, I’ll switch off the monitoring on that particular account. Regretably that means that some things get deleted without being read, but at least I don’t lose contact with cyber-space
Interesting post. Taking the interruption stuff to its logical conclusion….isn’t everything an interruption. a knock on the door, a request for a meeting, reading a twitter post, reading a blog, RSS feeds.
Sure if i’m looking at twitter you could say that anything posted there that I follow isn’t an interruption. Likewise emails that I subscribe too, if I’m in my email inbox and I see something I asked for, it’s the same deal.
If it’s something I asked to be sent to me perhaps because I have an interest (relevant content) It’s sent to me on a schedule i like (anticipated) then I don’t perceive this to be interruption.
Of course if they skew things and start bombarding me with stuff I didn’t want then it’s likely they will have soured their relationship with me.
Mike Ashworth
Marketing Consultant
Brighton and Hove, Sussex, UK
Mark,
Of course I filter my email as well - greatly filter. Truthfully, I’ve not read one of your ezines in months because I never see them unless I go into the folder they dump into. Makes me think, I should find out what you’ve been writing about.
Again, I think of interruption as what it is - does it steal my attention. So for me, personally, ezines don’t because any I subscribe to go into folders automatically. But how many people who signup for your ezine filter their email that way?
And, since they don’t really know when it’s going to arrive, when it does, it will interrupt their life. That doesn’t mean they’ll have a negative experience - maybe they can’t wait to get it. But it still is interrupting their life in a way that they can’t easy control.
Thoughts?
rob,
I’m totally with you on how to manage it. I have a whole productivity flow for dealing with all email. So what I’m talking about has nothing, ultimately, to do with whether I, Dawud Miracle, feel interrupted personally by any email. As I mentioned above to Mark, I don’t see it at all. And, I’m in the great minority.
Yet the point I’m wanting to make - and the conversation I hope to have - is about interruption marketing and how times are changing. Consumers can take much more control over how they’re marketed too today. And I don’t think as business owners we should be blind to that. Do you?
Mike,
This is the fine line I’m walking, I think. With Twitter or RSS, you as the consumer decides absolutely whether you want to be engaged by a medium. So you have ultimate choice as to when and how you interact with these services.
But I’m talking about marketing - a method of marketing where it’s necessary to stop people, grab their attention and get them to listen so that you can sell your products or services. Isn’t that interruption marketing? And isn’t that what marketing email does?
A knock on the door is great just before dinner, mildly interruptive during dinner, and extremely interruptive in the middle of the night. Email is the same way.
Email is sometimes interruptive and sometimes permissive. Sometimes you want it and sometimes you don’t. Interruption marketers should do their best to send emails at times and in ways that minimize the interruption annoyance factor.
Really good email marketing (like Mark Silver’s, in fact!) don’t feel like an interruption to me, any more than getting a good magazine does. I either stop and read it right there or I set it aside for a good time.
I think email could feel more interruptive than it used to because few people set aside specific times to read email. People adopt an “always on” relationship with email (as most people do with the telephone–I do not, as it happens). If you’re constantly watching your email come in, if you get something you aren’t ready for, it’s an interruption.
I don’t personally feel the not-so-steller email marketing I get is an interruption either, because it’s so easy for me to see the header and think, “nah, not into that today” and delete it. Maybe that’s email Tivo?
I believe in asking permission. Seth Godin is my hero - My entire address list for email mailings was based on —would you like me to keep in touch and this is what you can expect from me.
I think it’s refreshing - so many say to me how nice of you to ask
see if this comment goes through
Easton,
You’re getting my point. It’s about timing and delivery. And as a consumer it’s up to me to decide whether something is interrupting my life or not. So really, there’s no argument on this point. It’s fully subjective.
But for me, as a marketer, I see how people interact with email changing. Just look at the 16-26 year-olds right now. How few of them are using email today because it’s either inconvenient, spam-ridden or unnecessary?
Sonia,
Ooh, email Tivo. I always knew you were brilliant, but that’s beyond.
I think email interruption is subtle. I also think, like violence and profanity in the media, we’re becoming desensitized to it.
I noticed, for instance, that you were choosey about what you called an interruption and what you didn’t. That’s they key. I think it’s subjective. And I bring this topic up to give marketers something to think about. Because isn’t it obvious that effective marketing is changing with social media?
BTW, loved finally meeting you at SOBCon. Thanks for the great conversation.
Mother Earth,
Permission is important. At least with permission you can assume that people want to hear from you.
But does that change how your ezines and promotion interrupt their lives?
I’ve never heard of email marketing…is that the stuff that spam is made out of?
I don’t like ads or marketing through my mail. My mail is like my place of zen and those ads are destroying it =D So yeah. Email marketing is going to spam folder for me
I can assure you that email marketing is NOT dead!
Email marketing done right is not interruptive either, as all parties voluntarily sign up and WANT to receive the emails.
From a marketing point of view you’re simply leaving loads of money on the table if you’re not building a responsive list.
As a consumer it’s up to you whether you opt in to lists or not.
Obviously you’ll get some unwanted spam, but that’s not email marketing, that’s simply spam!
Interruption is such a nasty word
The word immediately evokes bad energy or feelings doesn’t it?
No one likes to be interrupted.
I agree email is a form of interruption. Email marketing does interrupt. However, when I receive an newsletter - one that I subscribed to - I do not see or feel that I am being interrupted. I welcome it because, I gave permission to receive it.
For me, Twitter is more of an “interruption” than email. Or when one of my co-workers emails me to help them add a picture to their blog - that is a big interruption. I get interrupted more at work with people passing by my desk than any email or newsletter could hope to achieve.
I don’t see interruption marketing and permission marketing as the same thing. Perhaps they use the same mediums but, in my opinion, they are very different methodologies.
Dawud, you bring up some great points that should be taken to heart because as the above discussion shows - there is a very thin line.
I’d write more but I need to interrupt my boss and ask permission to go to the bathroom.
If we take your definition of ‘interruption marketing’, how is that any different from an RSS feed? The feed pings the feed readers, and if I have set up my feed reader to send me notifications, when you hit ‘publish’ you’ve interrupted me.
Now you might say that I am the one who set up the notifications, so I’m in charge. Well, the same holds true for email subscriptions. I am the one who has subscribed, so I am in charge, not the marketer.
Just my $.02.
Jenny,
Spam…is that some sort of oddly ground up meat?
zohai,
Is there anything type of marketing you request that you read through email? How about product information from a company you contact?
Josh,
Little known secret in this debate, I use an email list to market as well. So I know it’s not dead. And I do see it changing.
What I wonder about is you saying that email marketing ‘done right’ isn’t an interruption. Isn’t that left to the consumer to decide?
David,
I think it’s simple….the interruption is in the eyes of the one being interrupted by an email campaign - whether they asked for it or not.
I loaded that up, didn’t I?
Wendy,
You’re $1.50 is welcome here anytime my dear friend.
I think the difference between RSS and email is that you know when you boot up or view your reader there’s going to be new content. You expect that - and maybe even hope for it.
But with email, you use it for other things than to receive someone’s marketing materials. How often do you look in your inbox for something only to find yourself interrupted by an email - expected or not - marketing someone’s something?
I hate to pile on, but with a definition of interruption marketing that loose it’s hard to see how any marketing efforts (short of passively waiting until someone came asking for your offering) wouldn’t be considered an interruption.
I’m just saying.
Chris Cree,
Personally and professionally, I define interruption marketing as anything that comes across my life that I either don’t want there or am not actively seeking.
I also don’t feel that interruption marketing is wrong, as I’ve mentioned. Yet we all want to market effectively, right?
The thing is I’m only going to buy when I’m actively searching to solve some problem or issue I’m having. So as a consumer, it’s all an interruption unless I’m wanting what’s being pitched.
Yet, since as business owners we don’t know when our prospects will be ready to buy, we have to interrupt their life with reminder that we’re here so that when they are actively searching, we have a greater chance of them remembering us.
The truth is, marketing, while simple, is a complex thing because it takes all this into account. What I’m trying to do is shake up perception a bit and see what comes out it.
For instance, is email marketing dead - absolutely not! But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider how it’s changing. But how many of us business owners who rely on marketing through a list even know it’s changing - let alone how.
I say, do what works now, but plan for what may work tomorrow. May only because you don’t know til you do.
Long answer to a short question. But hopefully this clarifies why I’ve asked the questions the way I have.
Thoughts.
Well, nice link bait then
I may write a piece on this as well and link back.
I’m kinda agreeing with Wendy and Chris- I like the question you’re asking because it brings a microscope to the concept of ‘interruption.’
But, without a clear definition, it’s hard for me to make a useful thinking process, rather than getting caught in the little bitty details of whether something’s an interruption or not.
When I sit back in my chair, it creaks a little bit, and that catches my attention for a split second. That’s also an interruption.
I know you’re not saying whether it’s good or bad- it just is. But, in asking the question, I’m wondering what your opinion/perspective is.
And, based on your own comments, it looks like your RSS and Twitter feeds are more interrupting than my emails. It sounds like my emails aren’t interrupting you at all.
How many people are that sophisticated with their email? I dunno.
I guess I’m getting a little tired of the conversation, because it feels like it’s not grounded with clarity around -what- exactly are you calling an interruption. Hey, my chair just squeaked again. And I just heard a bird singing… gosh darn interruptions!
This is an interesting conversation!
While maybe proper permission-based email campaigns aren’t “technically” interruptive (depending on your definition), they can sure feel that way when they go off into “pest” territory. Too-frequent messages with content that’s mostly about the sender, not the recipient: ptui.
Whether the Great Seth
would decree annoying-but-permission-based email as interruption or not, I do think you’re getting at something very important here–just because someone opted in doesn’t mean you can barrage them with crap they don’t want.
I see a lot of less experienced marketers who clearly believe that because I haven’t bothered to unsubscribe, I must be reading every word of their daily junk. Among other problems, that’s a great way to get yourself marked as a spammer, even if CAN-SPAM wouldn’t see you that way.
Josh,
Not at all meant to be link bait. I’m simply interested in the conversation that comes out of various perspectives. And I love to learn through discussing ideas from different perspectives.
The thing is, I truly care to hear what you have to say. Which is why I spend so much time commenting in reply. Conversation leads down all sorts of paths.
And if you cover this topic, let me know and I’ll join in there too.
Mark,
I guess you and I were writing at the same time. Read my response to Chris Cree.
I can’t really speak to the chair or the birds. I know you well and I know that have more self-discipline than that.
Sonia,
Yeah, that they key, I think. Just because someone gives us permission to contact them, doesn’t mean we should take whatever liberties we like.
What I see is that people under 30 are tolerating the interruptions far less than the people over 40. And it’s the people under 30 - currently the largest generation in American history - who are already using their spending power to send a message to marketers and ad-firms.
I can’t say what this will mean down the road, but I am watching it. Which is why I started this conversation in the first place.
Thoughts?
Thanks for clarification, Dawud- it’s really helpful for me to hear your opinion on it.
I have a different perspective. I think that if we’re too careful about not going into ‘pest’ territory, then you can be doing a real disservice to the people who are counting on you.
Lest people think that I barrage my readers with offers, I think those who are on my list can attest that I don’t- that I am careful.
But, if we sway too far in the other direction, you can end up with a very passive list. In some ways, the sales offers you make, as well as the content, help people to unsubscribe so that you can be clear that you’re talking to folks who are really connected to everything you’re doing- whether or not they take you up on it.
I’ve had people grumble at me about a sales offer after one pitch. And I’ve had others thank me because the sales offer itself was, in some way, healing for them because of the wording I used.
People have their own filters. We have to be careful not to be pests- but we also can’t take too much responsibiilty for their reactions.
And that counts on Twitter, RSS, or, God-forbid, actual face-to-face conversation.
Thanks for sparking the dialogue, brother.
Mark,
Face-to-face conversation? You must not have upgraded. Face-to-face conversation isn’t needed any more…
It’s all a perspective thing, I think. And as a marketer I think it’s important to keep people’s perspectives in our minds whenever we pitch them anything. There’s always going to be people who like and dislike. But what’s the majority saying?
And the thing I mentioned in response to Simone, above, shouldn’t be handled too lightly. I’m not suggesting any major changes right now, but we have to consider trends. There’s a lot of buying power that’s going to influence the marketplace very soon. So being up on what’s coming is important, I think.
Nice discussions here. Hmm… I‘m not quite sure but I do notice some people are generating leads from sign up forms or something that requires email and then sell it to public for gold. That’s what people do a lot back in 90s before the email clients and webmails have upgraded. So receivers sometime might receive something that they never signed up (not something or not relevant to what they wanna read about). So maybe that’s why people call it ‘interruption’?
Dawud,
I disagree with you in this regard. For me email marketing, again from the point of view of being a customer, is not “interruption” marketing. Thanks to filters and such, each email coming from a marketer I’ve allowed to send me one, lands directly to the appropriate folder, and I decide “when” to open that email. Of course, I have a scheduled time, too, to open my emails, I don’t jump up and stop whatever it is that I’m doing just to check an email as it arrives. LOL, if I do that I wouldn’t accomplish anything at all in my waking hours.
Yeah interruption marketing can be annoying but if you tell a story in your email and make your reader so interested in reading the story it makes it easier to swallow and you tend to get better reception to what it is your are trying to sell.
Hi Dawud,
Thanks for your reply. I agree that the face of e-mail marketing is changing, and one good thing is that this thread has given me plenty of food for thought.
What I think is most important, is that even if the recipient of the e-mail only sees it to delete it (We hope they will read it though), that you have left some impression in their brain that you exist.
If they decide to delete you in your entirety (by unsubscribing) then maybe they weren’t a good prospect in the first place. or maybe they will become a prospect in the future.
It does put the onus on the people who are sending the e-mails to make them engaging and relevant, so that the people who may buy will indeed do so.
I disagree. In Gmail, the more bolded (unread) e-mails I see when I open it, the happier I am, EVEN IF those unread messages are something I never intend to read. There are two main reasons:
1) I want e-mail. Personally, checking e-mail is a break I reward myself for completing a large chunk of work. I enjoy reading mail. I opt in to several newsletters that give away free information. Most importantly, the more e-mail I have, the longer a break I can take.
2) Scanning and Filtering. I scan e-mail headlines and decisions are made in microseconds. 99% of all spam is caught by gmail’s filter, and then I simply skip over anything else I’m not going to read. I don’t even delete it, I just let it scroll down the page. If I have more time I will read more mail, but I never know before hand how much time I have, so I opt for more mail than I’ll ever read.
So in my experience, e-mails aren’t interrupting anything.
Despite being on a no call list I still get unsolicited marketing phone calls regularly. Being tired of the interruptions of this invasion of privacy the same feelings have transferred to email and snail mail too.
I am overloaded with email as it is - work, personal, from social networking sites and spam. I have unsubscribed from most newsletters. I delete unsolicited mail without reading and if my inbox gets too full subscribed newsletters are deleted unread too. I now rely much more on RSS for information and try to keep my inbox as clear as possible.
Yes, interruption is an understatement.
Each day mailings cost people time.
And we all know that time = money.
Great post!
i dont think that email marketing is dead
even my uni now still using their email to do their publlicity and its work
Kevin,
I call it an interruption simply because you, as the consumer, don’t have ultimate control over when a marketing message is put in front of you in your inbox. Furthermore, it’s an interruption because the email has to interrupt your life to get your attention to have an impact.
Mike,
So are you always looking for the products and services that are coming to your inbox? Then how is it not an interruption?
Insomnia,
Yet even with a good story, isn’t the message interrupting your life?
rob,
From a successful marketing campaign perspective, I agree. Yet from the consumer’s perspective, the question still remains, is email marketing interrupting your life?
Fred,
But I’m not talking about email you’re looking for, want to get or reward yourself with. What about email where a business is trying to get your to buy something - do you feel the same way?
Sublimely,
Interesting point - and I think this sentiment is growing. Are there any marketing messages you’re happy to get?
home based,
Exactly. How much time do you think it costs you weekly?
Zip,
Sure, but does your email marketing interrupt the lives of your audience?
I am not happy to get any unsolicited email on principle. If I do subscribe to newsletter then it is because I am interested so always happy then - especially if advertising a sale item or bargain - but then I am the sort who will spend on something just because it is a real bargain and it pleases me to save money even if in reality I am spending on something I would not have otherwise bought.
some of the email marketing is really mean something but there are some that really mean nothing for us….this thing can’t be controlled..
Well I reckon it all depends who has the list, how relevant that list is and how big it well is… Then how that list is used, does the subscribers actually receive quality or do they simply get spammed each and every other day…
Great post, super insightful thx
Jamie
Ads or marketing through my mail make my mail like a messy and it can be destroying it.. So, what should i do to ignore all this things??…
Well, to some people it is interrupting marketing. But for those who just ignore spam mails, its not a problem to them at all. Nothing gets interrupted. Great article btw !
sueblimely,
So does email marketing - opt-in, of course - get you to buy more often?
Ecommerce,
Maybe. I’m of the mind that anything can change. So if email spam, for instance, could be fully avoided, would you partake?
ViralInviter,
But could it depend on the perspective of the one having their inbox filled?
Marmaris,
Spam filter, get off any list you don’t want to be on and talk with your ISP/web host about better filtering.
SEO,
Perhaps. I just keep finding it interesting that we’re focused on what we, as business owners think, rather than considering what the consumer might think. Thoughts?
Well, for me, I only open the ones I’m interested in, so it depends on what email advertising it is.. It also depends on other variables like if I have the interest to read it at that moment, time-constraints or email storage space. I usually delete them hope you don’t mind
home,
I don’t. I want the people who are interrupted by my content to want to read it. Otherwise, I’d rather not bother you. Does that seem fair?
I believe that email marketing is interruption marketing because some people might think that is is a nuisance to see lots and lots of advertisement and make the internet traffic slow down.
membership,
I think you’re right.
The point that’s been lost in this conversation, I feel, is that no one is wrong - or right. Interruption is in the eye of the one being interrupted.
I agree with membership, also consider that SPAM = email
so emailing someone about a product is viewed as SPAM
spam has a bad name for it self so connecting it with your business makes your rep go down.
Of course email marketing is not dead! ıt’s changing like everything else. It is an interruption but if permission based people will give your email some time to work…everything customer focused I say.. serve the customer and offer info or bonuses and be a service..