List building is the key. Someone can say ‘Look at the gurus, they’re all building lists!’ but the truth is that keeping a prospect base at your fingertips is a smart way of doing business than just trying to get one-hit sales all the time.
One of the biggest future threats to email is technology. There is a feeling in some places that Twitter will somehow replace email marketing. That may be the case, no matter how low the odds are. Who knows, Twitter may introduce their own integrated email service together with their current system.
But the key is this: there will be always a way to capture subscribers’ contacts for further follow-up. The general idea of collecting names and contacts for further communication will always be effective. Direct mail used to be the only way and it is still in use. Now there is another method with email. One method that may be used in the future is desktop publishing. Subscribers download a piece of software and messages are instantly sent to that software instead of an email inbox. It is a terrific way to beat email clutter.
People are getting more and more emails everyday as they sign up for more lists. They will subscribe to some lists and they will unsubscribe from others. Unique emails will stand out even more. And I believe email frequency is also becoming more important. As other email marketers email more and more and as people receive more email, you’ll want your emails to be in front of them more often.
