The end of email is nigh?
Posted 16 April 2007 at 8:42AM by Simon Dickson in Email and communications
It's been suggested that 2007 will be the first year when there's more email spam than proper person-to-person email flying across the internet. Researchers IDC reckon spammers are getting sneakier, using images in email to get around spam filters, as well as smarter methods of 'identity spoofing'. Meanwhile, younger internet users are turning away from email as the main online communication method - preferring to use RSS feeds, instant messaging, text messages or internet-based telephony.
What does this mean for a typical small business? Well, on the one hand, it means the war against email spam is far from over. So if you haven't got a spam solution in place, and you're hoping it will all just go away, you'd better think again. The good news is, today's spam filters generally do a magnificent job - most weeks I don't see a single spam email in my pre-filtered inbox.
But images in email - whether spam or 'legitimate' marketing - have always been a bone of contention, and it sounds like this could get worse. Marketing people want their emails to look pretty. But many web-based email systems (like Google's Gmail) already block images by default, and if the trend for image-based spam continues, you have to expect most spam solutions to do likewise. And I've seen too many examples already of companies who have put huge efforts into beautiful email imagery, only to appear in my inbox as a completely blank message, all too easy to delete.
You'll also need to recognise that new, younger staff members will expect to be able to use their preferred means of communication in their work. You need to decide, for example, if you think it's appropriate to let your employees use instant messaging (like MSN / Windows Live Messenger) on their desktop PCs. There will inevitably be some non-work-related usage, but you may well find it has real productivity advantages for those who choose to use it, whether within the company or with outside contacts. (Besides, if you do choose not to allow the software, they're bound to find ways around it.)
And if there is a general trend away from email, it's probably worth thinking long-term about the value of email-based marketing. For a lot of businesses, an email newsletter is the most obvious starting point for an online marketing effort. But speaking as an 'early adopter' type myself, I've unsubscribed from more or less every email newsletter I ever used to receive: it just isn't how I want companies to communicate to me. If I buy into your company, I'd much rather sign up to your blog, and read your news when I choose - not when you choose to send it.
Tags: blogs, email marketing, instant messaging, rss, spam
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Comments
2. At April 16, 2007 5:57 PM, Chris wrote:
As one who was born at about the same time as Alan Turing was designing the first electronic computer, I am beginning to feel left behind. I still think e-mail is a neat idea, though I seem to spend the first couple of minutes, after opening my email, marking and blocking spam. Yahoo Beta does this for me but my main account through BT, using Outlook Express, makes me go to "messages" menu and "block sender" but up comes the spam next time from a different address. I hope that the geeks manage to come up with a universally applicable spamicide and keep my preferred means of communication viable for as long as possible.
3. At April 16, 2007 9:01 PM, Mike wrote:
Chris... try setting your home page to the bt business broadband/office site and then use the in house facility for E mail at the top of the page... Rather than Outlook Express... Speaking as I find they seem to filter out almost everything... my Spam harvest wouldn't feed Kate Moss...!
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1. At April 16, 2007 9:39 AM, michael mclaughlin wrote: