A recent June 19th study from Return Path states that 85% of the email they tracked in 2011 would be considered SPAM.  That equates to 17 Trillion unwanted emails.  Put in perspective that is about 2,500 unwanted emails for every person on the face of the earth.   As expected, the study goes on to promote Return Paths primary service, “sender reputation management”.

Essentially the cleaner, smaller, and more targeted your lists the better your sender reputation will be .  One of the issues for the Email Marketing Professional is that to get a better reputation the list in fact does probably need to be significantly smaller.  Either way you lose.

A good example of how difficult it can be to develop a large legitimate list is to review Mail Chimp’s recommended email list practices.  Most people familiar with email marketing know Mail Chimp is one of several main players in bulk email distribution.  You can view Mail Chimp’s guidelines here:  http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/is-my-list-okay-to-use-in-mailchimp  .

Their guidelines have fairly specific and rigid rules on the type and source of email lists that are sent through their service.  This is common and is the public face of most of the high profile services. They are very much in line or more conservative than the current “Can Spam Act” law on the books.  They are nearly forced to uphold these standards because failed audits could lead to fines or service interruption.

Despite this fact, we are still constantly assaulted by organizations selling targeted “opt-in” lists ( if you are wondering, there is almost no way to legitimately purchase an opt in list! ).  Who on earth would knowingly give someone permission to sell their email address to an unknown future third party???  — Sounds like a great idea, sign me up for that please!  If you find them, please let them know I have a great “time share” deal for them as well.

Because email is so cost effective and easy,  everyone’s Inbox is under assault.  The amount of spam being filtered is increasing  and the amount of spam reaching it’s destination is also increasing.

The bottom line is that real email lists are available for purchase or collection ( legitimate or not ).  The end result is in the neighborhood of those 17 Trillion unwanted mailings.  I’ve seen it in my own inbox.  ISP’s and email service providers are currently going to war on what is a quickly growing issue.

If this trend continues it will essentially destroy the playing field for most organizations utilizing email marketing.  To put it plainly, future filtering systems will be forced to block out all but very specific email. Today’s filters are puny compared to what is in the works.  As this happens many legitimate emails will be filtered out of the inbox regardless if they opted in or not.  A less than perfect reputation score in the future could cut your delivery rates by 50% or more.  In addition it will be very hard to have a good reputation score with lists of any significant size.  ( Not a good situation for the marketer. )

Today it is still fairly easy to reach most of your audience, enjoy it and take advantage while it lasts.  Future changes are going to make it much much more difficult to reach a similar audience.  Delivery rates will be heading south.

Is it all doom and gloom?  The jury is out…

Here are 9 ideas to help insure outbound marketing success into the future.

Keep Sending – Enjoy the golden age while it lasts.  It is still extremely cost effective.  Don’t stop now, just be aware of the challenges ahead.

Keep It Clean – Clean your lists religiously.  Remove old emails, remove repeat bounces, segment your markets, and work with your ISP / ESP.  Your sender reputation will be very important.

Direct Snail Mail – Don’t divorce your printing company.  It may come in handy in the future.  Well targeted cost effective direct mail is a close relative to email.  As the cost to deliver email increase it will start to look more attractive again.

Quality Content – Make your email extremely attractive, useful, compelling, sticky, and needed.  Your audience literally needs to ask why they aren’t receiving them anymore.  They need to be darn interesting.

Please Respond – Convince your customers to open and respond to your emails now to start a positive pattern.  If you can convince potential customers to email you now, it will be much easier to send them email moving forward.  Spam filters take this into consideration.

White Lists – Find creative ways to convince potential customers to put your email on their personal or company white lists.  There must be a perceived need on their part to receive your email.  The contents of those future emails are going to have a high value proposition.  Try tying it to official correspondence like billing, accounting, service, etc.

Micro Batches – Teach your sales force or organization representatives to send targeted emails directly to their customers in small batches.  Emails from a direct rep / real person is proven to be opened and acted on at higher rates than promotional mail.

Be Multidimensional –  Create awareness from a variety of sources.  Email, direct mail, ppc, seo, phone calls, trade publications, trade shows, and social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA – Social media is mentioned last in #8, but in reality it is the first thing that could replace bulk email as a cost effective outbound tool.  Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, and others will be more effective at influencing potential customers in the near future. Convert email customers to your social networks aggressively. These networks can be your new best friends!