The two biggest threats to email marketers today
Published: Sat, 04/25/20
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Ben,
here's my question:
What I like a lot about your marketing system is that it is quite resilient, from a technical point-of-view. A blogger can be mutilated by google's algorithm updates ("oh no, I don't care about quantity, I want longer articles now, and I *hate* link exchanges"), people who bet on sites like ezinearticles got murdered by google too in the past, youtubers can have their channel closed anytime for whatever reason, in a way kindle authors depend on a big player's will too (erotica was a golden goose until amazon decided to murder it). And, on Facebook, you are at the mercy of Zuckerberg's views, too. I could go on and on.
E-mail, not so. It is by design a very decentralized media. What worked 10 years ago still works unchanged. However, do you think there could be a threat for mail-based marketing in the future? (I'm thinking about spam filters obviously, but even them are decentralized by nature) If so, what should we do to protect us?
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My opinion:
We’re nowhere near email being dead, or taken away as a media for selling. But, there are legitimate threats to it, and dangers for relying completely on it.
I see the two biggest as being:
1. Gmail’s potential power to censor
Let’s say you go against the Google Machine in some way, or they catch you thinking the wrong thoughts, etc. Probably not much to stop them from, for example, not delivering your emails to Gmail users. Or, at the very least, from playing games with that delivery, etc.
2. Email broadcasting/autoresponders getting into the de-platforming act
The only one I’ve seen do that so far is Mailchump.
But, there’s nothing stopping others from hopping on the virtue signaling bandwagon.
All of which is why, when the social media de-platformings started going into full bore mode, and people started pounding their chests about how they were “safe” because they had email, I could only shake my head.
That’s small thinking.
And, they completely missed the point of what's happening.
Do you really think big tech can’t effectively take email away from you if'n they had a notion to?
All of which is why relying on just email, or just anything, is a potential recipe for disaster. It’s also why learning how to stack various media platforms together "William Randolph Hearst style" is vital, in my way of thinking.
Something I show in glorious detail in the May “Email Players” issue.
But time is getting short to get it before the deadline.
Go here to subscribe immediately:
http://www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle