Tomorrows Email Marketing

Slide 1: Tomorrow’s email marketing Bill Thompson bill@andfinally.com www.andfinally.com

Slide 2: Why me?  Tame geek  Recovered programmer  Trainer and course developer  New media pioneer  PIPEX ‘Internet ambassador’  Guardian website, 1994  Commentator, critic, broadcaster  BBC News online, World Service, New Statesman  Online marketer  Arts Council England, ArtsProfessional, openDemocracy.net

Slide 3: The big question  Does email have a future?  The answer is ‘yes’ - so please stay…  What should you be doing?  If you use email to reach customers or subscribers, how will it affect you?  What might email look like?  Some speculation and extrapolations

Slide 4: We can see what’s coming ‘The future has already arrived… it’s just not evenly distributed yet’

Slide 5: Forget the old models…  Building a new information ecology  Old niches are vanishing  New conditions prevail  A time for adaptation  Email can survive  Find a new niche as the environment shifts  Offer continuing value to users  That begs the question…

Slide 6: What is email?  We think we know  The assumptions we have may be wrong  We may want to rethink email  Defining electronic mail  Message exchange  To named recipient(s)  With persistent storage of received items  Protocols and techniques don’t matter  Which means we can change them  Which also means we can dispense with them

Slide 7: The Information Ecology  Email does not stand alone  Part of a set of communications services  Different characteristics  Different uses  Overlapping audiences  Email not for everyone  Children and the US prefer IM  Instant gratification?  Sense of presence?  Where does email fit?  Solid. Stable. Reliable.  Boring?

Slide 8: A future for email?  Let’s consider tomorrow  How will the network change  Which tools will emerge  What place could email have?  Extrapolation is not good enough  The trends are not linear  Disruptive technologies erupt like volcanoes  Sometimes the unexpected happens  Storing traffic records may deter email use  IM interoperability is finally happening.  Need to use our imaginations  And have ‘informed courage’

Slide 9: A possible (likely) tomorrow  Fast free wireless in the West  Free at the point of use  Pervasive network, portable devices  Access to information whenever you want it  Flexible portable screen technology  Sony’s reader is just the start  Not a perfect world:  A digital divide as severe as today  Millennium development goals still far off

Slide 10: This is already happening…

Slide 11: Sony Reader

Slide 12: Prefer it flexible?

Slide 13: Google Video Store  What happens when this is how we get programmes? QuickTimeª and a TIF F (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

Slide 14: Or this is what we watch.. QuickTimeª and a TIFF (LZW) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

Slide 15: Wind up and go…  How will the world be different when a billion children have a $100 laptop?  Wireless  Ebook reader  Open source

Slide 16: Welcome to the Spew*  The Internet provides all data  One data pipe  Multiple meanings  Screens still dominate  Flexible, portable, projecting  Some use of VR, retinal lasers, neural links  Email is part of the infosphere * Neal Stephenson, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/spew.html

Slide 17: The media landscape alters  Doing it ourselves  Blogging  Podcasting  YouTube and MySpace  Getting what we want  Music downloads  Video distribution  Pirated software/games  Looking for immediacy  Instant messaging; blog comments

Slide 18: More than just words  Broadband supports multimedia  Photo-sharing on Flickr  Video uploads to YouTube  A new new media landscape…  What place do existing players occupy?  Who will make money?  Who will tell the truth?  How will we reach people?  Lots of choices  Lots of ways of getting it wrong

Slide 19: Where does email fit in?  The e-environment is changing  New content  New tools  New services  New modes of interaction  Can email find a niche?  It faces big issues  Reliability  Trust  Effectiveness

Slide 20: ‘Every man’s spam diminishes me’ What are we going to do about unwanted emails, spoofed addresses and clogged up mailboxes? (apologies to John Donne)

Slide 21: What are we looking at…  Spam is a symptom

Slide 22: Differential diagnosis  Shows that existing standards are perceived to be failing  Is this an accurate perception?  Shows that email is poorly controlled  Can we put new systems in place?  Shows that people still value email  But they are not sure it can deliver

Slide 23: Trust and control  Trusted computing architectures  Built into current generation PCs - Lenovo  Accessed through next gen OS - Vista, Mac OS  Provide low-level validation of executables  Provide low-level authentication of services  Who trusts whom?  Trusted systems used to control content playback  Restrict user freedoms to serve rights holders  May be resisted by consumers

Slide 24: Authentication and identity  Next generation network coming soon  Based around IPV6  Authentication and encryption built in  A tool for evil?  Monitor all traffic  Better filters  No anonymity  Preferential routing  A tool for good?  Spoofing much harder

Slide 25: Giving email space to breathe  Many of the problems go away  Regulated networks, trusted PCs  Authenticated users, validated servers  Replace quickfix solutions  Sender Policy Framework, Sender ID and Goodmail certificates all go away  Integrated into applications and servers  Legitimate use of email communications will be simpler in a trusted world

Slide 26: Reaching customers  What is email good for?  Asynchronous - read when you want  Personal and personalised  Permanent - can be filed  Need to build on these strengths  Don’t use email when other tools will do  Let your users choose  Email newsletter vs RSS feed  Text only or HTML email  Message granularity  Too easy to lose people’s trust

Slide 27: The future is well-fed  Already see moves to feed-based services  Still waiting for the right technology  RSS is a broken protocol  Cannot scale to meet our real needs  Does not respect network model  The next stage will work  Feed-based publishing from CMS  Content delivered in format of choice  Newsletters, websites, blogs, email  All different views of the same information

Slide 28: One CMS to rule them all  Content belongs in databases  Structured  Managed  Controlled  Full range of reports  Provide content through a range of services  Web, print, streamed, downloaded  Email becomes one of the options  Email becomes part of the hypertext

Slide 29: I link, therefore I am

Slide 30: The user experience  For those who want it, it’s the same  Outlook or other client  Send and receive ‘messages’  For those who want more, it’s there  New email notification to any device  Send once, read anywhere services  Full sender authentication at host server  Email marketing must adapt  Need a more sophisticated view  Need to understand what technology offers

Slide 31: Where next?  Two-pronged strategy  Maintain the status quo  Plan for the disrupted future  Make the best of today’s email  Proper list management  Effective list software  Proper marketing input where needed  Be there when tomorrow arrives  Observe the trends  Design new systems around new capabilities

Slide 32: How do we cope?  Look to the wired world  Most of the time network is ‘just there’  Bits are as boring as electrons and water  Everyone online  Except for the poorest 4 billion  Accept what is going on  Engage  Embrace  Extend  Work with the grain of the system  Email has a future - you just have to create it

Slide 33: Thank you. Questions….