The power of the inbox is about to grow and spread

More power to your inbox’ (MW last week) was a great article disputing the much-touted view that social media is killing email. Countless pieces of research show this isn’t the case and in fact email continues to grow in influence.

As the article discussed, email has evolved hugely in the past few years and sophisticated techniques used by the likes of Renault and
Nissan are now much more commonplace. We are also likely to see better integration with other digital and mobile channels. Recent
research we conducted showed that far from preferring one method, many consumers prefer a multichannel approach. However, few brands encourage their customers to share their marketing messages from email on social media channels through the share-with-yournetwork
features.

Email and social media are joined at the hip and I believe that email will still be the backbone of commercial online communications in the future. Marketers need to analyse how to communicate with people in the most effective way, through understanding why they behave a certain way on social networks and email. This will allow us to target individuals with a relevant brand message through the right channel, at the right time. Ultimately, isn’t that what we are all trying to achieve?

Simon Bowker
UK managing director
eCircle