During Google's recent I/O conference there was a presentation given by Lars Rasmussen and Stephanie Hannon announcing a new product called Wave that is touted to change the way people email. The question is, will this change the way that marketers send email?
Google Wave, while not a complete product yet, introduces the idea of an ongoing conversation with an individual or group of individuals who join a hosted conversation (read email) to which they can reply, edit, private message, or even chat with any of the individuals who are part of the dialogue. The concept of a conversation is an interesting idea and something to be considered by marketers.
How many of us have a conversation with our customers through email? Is there really such a thing as a digital dialogue? Is the concept just too difficult to implement and is it worth the effort? Will Google yet again change the landscape of email?
While I'm not certain on the answer to the last question, the others are definitely worth considering and reviewing how the answers might influence your own marketing programs. There are a lot of follow-up questions that can be drawn out of those initial queries; the primary one is if your current provider is able to provide a toolset to let you accomplish these goals. If you answered yes to the question of the concept being difficult to implement, it is time to start looking for a new provider.
Relevancy. It has been a buzz word in email marketing channels for as long as I can remember. The fact that we are still talking about it means that there are not believers out there. Do you believe? You should. Need proof that relevancy works? Take a look at Twitter's operating model. Follow people who you think are interesting and worth following. Does it get more relevant then self-selecting what information you want to receive from a broadcast channel? I don't think so. I hate to say it because it has been a topic for discussion before social media every existed but email marketers need to take a look at how folks like Twitter and Facebook have adopted relevancy and start speaking to their customers, not blasting to them.
In Google's effort to take over the world (not a new observation) they look to be constantly reevaluating email. They first launch into the channel with their Gmail offering and, while it has become a prominent player in web-based email provider space, it still has a ways to go to compete with the likes of Yahoo! and MSN. *According to Hitwise, Yahoo! comes in at the top with 56.46% of the market share of US visits among email services websites, with Gmail coming in a distant third at 10.82%. Will Wave provide functionality for marketers to broadcast a conversation to a list of opted-in recipients? Does Google change the conversation or will it be forced to Wave goodbye? We'll just have to wait and see.
[...] there was a new message in a thread. It is almost a year to the day when I wrote in a post for iMedia Connection about the introduction of Wave and it's impact on email marketing. The last time I logged [...]