Monday - May 15, 2000

Unleashing the Monster of Email Marketing

According to Business Week columnist Ellen Neuborne:

"You know in horror movies, when the hero is walking down a hallway toward a closed door and you know the monster is going to leap out and tear him limb from limb? And you watch the guy, helplessly, as he walks closer and closer to certain death, and you yell out at the screen as he's reaching for the doorknob, 'Don't do it! Don't do it!'

That's how I feel watching Internet companies getting set to move their marketing money from television to e-mail marketing. It's a monster of a disaster about to leap from the closet. And the roster of victims will be long. There's no shortage of companies already starting down that hallway. Pets.com says it will focus more on e-mail marketing in the coming year. Mothernature.com, which last year spent much of its $27 million marketing budget on television ads, this year will focus its reduced budget almost exclusively on e-mail marketing. In fact, as the dot-com community collectively rejects the expense and mass-market reach of television advertising, it seems to be the popular thing to tell everyone you're now putting your money in e-mail. Jupiter Communications predicts commercial e-mail will increase fortyfold by 2005..."

Click here for the full story.

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