Email is still the #1 marketing and communication channel

The “death of email” fad is over a decade old. It is wrong. Email is still key to marketing and communications (marcom).

“Death of email” supposes people move to other platforms. The “other platforms” part isn’t wrong. Social media platforms barely existed a decade ago, and now they are widely used. The “move” part is what’s wrong.

Email is effective

Email’s first strength: it reaches more people than any other platform.

If you search on this, two facts emerge:

  • Email is by far the #1 tool, measured by percent of people using it.
  • The pandemic has significantly increased email utilization.

Effective email communications should be a marcom starting point.

Other platforms

Email’s other strength: it’s a single platform.

Think about social media: some are on Facebook, some are on Twitter, some are on Instagram, some are on other platforms. Effective marcom on social media requires you to cross-post to several platforms. That’s a chore!

Other platforms can be secondary

For all important communications, email should be primary. That means what you need to communicate, or a link to this information, must be in an email. Other platforms must be secondary.

Want to also convey information over Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.? Go for it! Just be consistent and thorough with what you do. If a social media platform’s users become satisfied with communications over it, they may pay less attention to emails.

Exceptions

Targeted or non-important communications? Do what makes most sense. A geofenced communication to find prospects may make sense exclusively on social media.

What about communities that are simply part of a social-media platform, such as Facebook groups? In that case, using social media as the primary or even exclusive communications tools could make sense.

Finally, your organization may have a practice of using selected platforms for communications. For communicating with affiliates, exclusive use of the selected platforms could be fine. This assumes enough of your affiliates are willing to watch for information on that platform.

Summary

Email is the dominant communication platform. Allegations of change have been hoaxes.

For typical marketing and communications, email-first should be the rule. If it’s important, it must be in an email. Other platforms are generally best for complementing emails.

Website scores kill our success, waste our time

Many websites score us. They measure our reputation or activity.

Do you want to be successful? Don’t focus on these website scores. Focus on outcomes.

Example scores

Website scores are really gamification. With these scores, site owners induce you to do things that benefit them.

Here’s scores from some nerdy sites I use:

Github scores my contributions:

Aren Cambre’s Github score

Stack Overflow scores the judgment of others on my activity:

Aren Cambre’s Stack Overflow score

Hacker News scores the upvotes of my submissions or comments:

Aren Cambre’s Hacker News score

None of these scores meaningfully measure anything important about me.

Scores don’t matter…

Your time is your most precious asset. When you focus on these website scores, you’re giving away your most precious asset, just to enrichen company owners.

These scores don’t matter. These websites don’t even know your goals!

…unless you made the score

The scores that matter will be the ones you’ve created, that measure your progress to your own goals.

For example, I ran a Cub Scout day camp for four years. Wanting to have maximum positive effect on the community, I have a “go big or go home” approach to Scouting. I rated myself in part on how well the camp recruited participants. That is a score I made for myself. It helped us set new records.

Participant registration trends at a Cub Scout day camp I ran.

Focus for success

If website scores end up being good, that’s fine! But make sure those great scores are merely incidental. They should not be your goal.

Focus on scores that matter. They will be the ones you created. They will help you know your path to your goals.