Reflections Part 1 on IRCE 2009

Email marketing is growing up and getting its due at IRCE

Last year at Internet Retailer, email marketing seemed to be treated as the bastard stepchild of the online marketing world. The event organizers kept it out of the limelight and few speakers acknowledged doing something so pedestrian and “yesterday” as email marketing. Most e-tailers I met at IRCE 2008 were either satisfied with blasting out emails or were just thinking of dipping their toes in the email marketing waters. Online marketers were somewhat intellectually interested in email analytics and segmentation but were not emotionally revved to do something about them.

What a difference a year and a recession make! Not only did email marketing more often find its way into session presentations but most online marketers I spoke with wanted to take their email marketing to the next level, even if they weren’t fully clear on what “next level” meant for them. I also far more agencies who wanted to improve email marketing for their clients and C-level execs who wanted to understand the potential of email marketing.

The sessions – sadly – were generally worse than last year and reflect poorly on Internet Retailer. Most of the presentations in 2008 did not have metrics nor did they necessarily reflect sophisticated business savvy but they at least were professional. This year most of the one I saw seemed to be thrown together. For example, on session on email marketing messaging was put on by an email service provider and an e-tailer. They promised practical advice that attendees could put into practice but everything was vague and general. Missing in action were metrics and practical processes. For example, the big takeaways from the session included have a call to action (CTA) and make your emails relevant. Ok.

I would like to see Internet Retailer take a pledge to only have speakers who

1. Share the specific results of their programs and

2. Give attendees an idea of how much time and effort is involved to achieve the stated results

In small and mid-size companies the whole online marketing team has too many things on their plate as is. They usually need help prioritizing - given their resource constraints – on what will help them best move the revenue needle. A lot of things are interesting or worthwhile but few can do them all.