Why email won’t work in isolation

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.precisionmarketing.co.uk/Art ... ation.html

So, according to the latest national client email marketing survey – conducted for DMA (UK) – email marketing has yet to reach its full potential as part of an integrated campaign. Call me old-fashioned but isn’t that the equivalent of a rough blonde saying she’s slept with Ashley Cole. Tell us something we didn’t know…



Of course email hasn’t fulfilled its potential – because far too many companies still use it in isolation simply because it has been sold as a cheap alternative to direct mail. Just because you have all those opt-in email addresses doesn’t mean you have to use them.



Funnily enough, consumers are already getting rather miffed by being bombarded with emails – highlighted by the fact that response rates are down on last year.



So, what’s a company to do?



If you believe the findings of the DMA report, email works best when linked with direct mail – a fact which is likely to send Royal Mail into ecstasy – followed by email and telemarketing. Also, email marketing budgets are set to rise further.



But one note of caution. Years ago, direct mail was seen as the panacea for cold prospecting. It made a lot of people a lot money and was one of the things that turned direct marketing into a multi-billion pound industry.



Strangely enough, this practice has also created public loathing, especially now that the environment is top of the agenda.



Do we really want to repeat this scenario by over-using email?

[norbert]

Royal Mail have been slated before for being backward IT-Wise for good reason. Something to do with the programs /software being exclusively M£S Word apparently.


That's startling , shocking news , hacks , cracks and fiddles -Well I never ! , life will never be the same again for me !


That's lazy , cliched journalism about Linux users being hippies , if you go down that road all the M£S users are all stuffy squares in boring grey suits like the Mac V PC ads .

There's been complaints about people taking faulty lap tops back to PC World and PC World saying customers had invalidated their warranty by wiping the Hard Drive and putting popular Linux Operating Systems on like Mandriva & Ubuntu on .

Christ the shop must have stunk of incense and patchouli oil and that sweetly sick smell from the jazz cigarettes , then with those scruffy b***ers traipsing back to the shops .

Ebay runs ads for Linux Op Systems , one ad reads " Computer crashed again or gone very slow " , use Ubuntu as a live CD to boot up from , if you like it take XP off or dual boot .You won't be bothered by Uncle Bill mithering you to validate , accuse you of getting a dodgy CD Rom from the boot sale , get taken round the houses or asked 4 times if you are sure of doing something They must have good custom when the Ebayers can tear themselves away from tie-dyeing their T-Shirts in the microwave or Bob Dylan records .

The most popular computer magazine had scores of emails from their readers asking for tutorials about Mandriva . There's the ASUS EE PC £200 lap -top with Linux on . Windoze is £60 extra . Walmart in the US sold out in two weeks with the Gateway PC for 200 dollars with Linux on .

MS users use the same open source apps that are on Linnux , i.e. Open Office , GIMP ( Silly Name though ) ( Or pay a small fortune to have Adobe Photoshop) , Thunderbird , Firefox , though obviously it's better to contribute to Uncle Bill's Retirement Fund eh ? .

My mate said he was going to upgrade to Vista , the upgrade was simple , just take half the memory out of the computer and down clock the Processor .

People are just sick of crashes , the security software being a memory vampire , then having to buy software to cure umpteen registry errors with the constant trouble shooting and general
paranoia ,system restore and constant updates and patches eating up your hard drive , it's just nice to have something that works , tuning in and dropping out is optional

[sevenandseven]

Judging from customer complaints (hearsay of course) I would say you invalidate your warranty with PC World/Dixons the moment you switch your computer on. Customer service?
As to emails have you ever gone to a company website and emailed them a simple enquiry about their products? 90% cannot even find the reply button and lose business as a result. Technology is wonderful when it works. It's the idiots using it that are the problem.