The internet plays a pivotal role in the daily life of most of us now, from sourcing information to communication, and from using email to social media. Email marketing is a huge aspect of any modern business’s overall marketing and branding strategy. The ability to send written messages via a computer network has revolutionised how we communicate, and it has also revolutionised how businesses conduct their marketing activities. Let’s take a little look at the evolution of email as a marketing channel...

1. A Short
History of
EMAIL
MARKETING
The first email was sent in
1971 by Raymond
Tomlinson via the
ARPANET (the precursor
to the internet).
It was also the first time @
was used to denote a
specific user at a specific
address.
In 1991, the introduction of
the Internet completely
revolutionised how
everyone would live, work
and play.
For marketers across the
world it opened the door to
a new way of mass
communication.
1971
Part 1
OPEN RATE: “No way to know open rate, but I am guessing about 200 were read by the addressees”.
CTR: “No but about 40 people came to the demos. 40 out of 200 or 40 out of 400 = very good response”
UNSUBSCRIBES: “No one could unsubscribe, but I did get a lot of complaints.”
ROI: “It resulted in about $12m+ in sales”.
When Hotmail (then
known as HoTMaiL)
launched as the first free
web based email service
it gave marketers a whole
new way to reach
customers.
Back in the 1990s, email was
still seen as somewhat of a
novelty for consumers; but as
more and more marketers
started to jump on the
bandwagon, inboxes soon
become cluttered with
unsolicited mailings and rules
began to be put in place to
protect consumers from
'spam'.
Sorry Gary.
STAY TUNED…we’ll
continue with more
specifics about the
evolution of email
marketing.
Part 2 to follow…..
"Most likely the first message
was QWERTYIOP
or something similar"
The first “huge” group email
was sent in 1978, by Gary Thuerk
to a group of around 400
people.
It was to demo (and ultimately
sell) a new computer product -
in other words, it was also the
world’s first SPAM email!
1978
KEY STAT’S ON THE WORLD’S FIRST SPAM EMAIL
(From Gary himself)
www.clicksend.com www.facebook.com/Click.Send.SMS https://twitter.com/ClickSendSMS https://www.linkedin.com/company/clicksend/