Mark Zuckerberg has suggested that email's time is nigh, this pronouncement came not surprisingly at the launch of one of the most significant developments on the Facebook platform for some time the new Messenger system through the messaging centre, something he hopes will ensure that his 750 million users dumps email in favour of Facebook.
The fact that you have to have an email address to have a Facebook account somehow seems to have been lost somewhere in the announcement, but that aside is Zuckerberg right? Well certainly there is evidence to suggest that email is on the wane. A research study by Comscore suggested that in the 12-17 year old age group usage was down 59%. This is well supported by the fact that last year 25% of US universities did not issue emails to new students but instead chose to run all communications through Facebook or other social networks.
So within the consumer population email usage is down but I don't believe email is anywhere close to dead in both the consumer and the B2B space, but there are a number of factors that are going to impact on the efficacy of email in 2012.
Multi-channel distribution complications
Social media platforms have meant that content can now be distributed in multiple ways. We don't see Facebook and Twitter's existence as a the death knell for email distribution. There is a time and a place for relevant information disseminated by email, the key though is ensuring what you are emailing is shareable through social networks to ensure that your valuable content is disseminated using these channels.
Smarter inboxes
Email inboxes have got smart. Users can now automate filing, and use 'sweep' options to ensure mass inbox clean ups. Marry that with the fact that email inboxes such as Boxbee can now deliver email based on previous behaviours it puts the onus back on brands to ensure they are running more effective campaigns. That means users will keep them listed as a preferred sender or 'starred' as a sender users want to hear from. If brands are keen to continue receiving consistently high open rates and prevent their message being deleted en mass with other senders content needs to stay high quality and relevant.
Portability
Up to 30% of email is now received on smartphones whether that be Blackberry, iOS devices or Android. It's therefore absolutely essential brands are optimising your email campaigns for mobile receipt.
Email will become more valuable
Opted in email lists are more valuable than ever before. Studies show that an opted-in email list is 23% more likely to convert to sale than other online communication channels. That means keeping lists recent, clean and relevant has never been more important.
Click thru rates up but open rates down
All of the above factors will most likely mean open rates will start to decline, however if brands ensure the quality, timeliness and relevance remains high we predict Click thru rates will increase and if the social sharing options are improved from each email the potential distribution possibilities become far greater than ever before.
