The Email Wars

David Baker, Jeanniey Mullen. Loren McDonald, Bill McCloskey – The Email Insiders

Bill: So happy to see everyone throwing the good and the bad out in the open. Why are we, the good email marketing folks here, the ones that are trying to work so hard at creating better programs, better content, better value for subscriber when we have to fight the real bad guys polluting the inbox? When will the C level execs start seeing the value in email marketing as a channel?

Jeanniey: One of the biggest benefits of this event is that people are sharing so much with one another, sharing collective insights, successes, agencies and vendors not acting competively but working to advance email overall and sharing with one another. (Like cats and dogs sleeping together.. is this the end of the world?) the people that are here some some of the most impactful brand marketers in the world and really working hard at doing all of this right.

David: This event has fostered so much collaboration and openess. So many people have said that they are taking so much back with them, and so many close new contacts that they can communicate with after they leave here. ( I personally saw Lenovo and HP having a great conversation). The biggest challenge for us is how we craft our email stories when we walk out of this event. Taking this understanding that we all have and face the same or similiar issues and collectively we have helped to solve a few this week.

Loren: Is part of what we have been talking about is that email does not have that ONE thing anymore? It has so many other benefits and roles now. Acquisition, Relationship, Promotional, Customer Lifecycle Value, etc. We are opening up our eyes to how we can best leverage it and how people want to get it.

Brian: (Cisco): The conversations here not only during the event but at the dinners, skiing, drinking… brought so much more insight as a community.

Ryan Buchanan: Can we have a way to keep this dialogue going on all year? Can we use the EEC site or another forum to talk to one another on issues, nuances, what works, feedback, etc.

Audience Comment: There is no one right answer to email I learned. It is enlightening to know everyone has a different strategy and can show how it works. No one solution works for everyone but everyone here has given more ideas in 3 days than I have got in 3 years.

We need to band together as a group and really help work on the bills coming out in Congress and State levels and work on some consumer education campaigns.

Overall everyone is looking for to the May 07 event in Scottsdale AZ and looking to actually spend more time with some international, CLV, Targeting, etc focused workshops.