Email Marketing: How It Has Changed in the Last 40 years

It’s been 40 years since the first mass email was sent. So it’s only natural that email marketing has evolved greatly. It went from what we now call “spam” to marketers striving to establish a genuine, meaningful communication with their audience.

What else has changed? And what can we learn in order to continue to evolve? Let’s think about it.

How email marketing has changed

? One of the essential changes is related to the legal context of email marketing. Not only is spam obnoxious, but it’s been illegal since 2003. That’s when the CAN-SPAM Act set strict rules for commercial emails.

? Sophisticated email service providers now offer us the ability to legally send our communications to thousands of people at once. Also, we get real time feedback on our campaigns and have the chance to learn how we can improve them.

? Email design has evolved tremendously. We now have thousands of templates to choose from and convey our message in the visual form that best complements our brand.

? Email verification has come to the rescue of hundreds of thousands of companies struggling with high bounce rates and poor sender reputation. Using an email checker every month is the most efficient step in email list hygiene.

Email marketing: no more loud self-promotion

? Since the first behavioral campaign (2001), email marketers have realized they have to get to know their subscribers and respond to their needs. As a result, personalization has become a key strategy to boost open rates and sales.

? We’ve seen an incredible improvement in content quality, once email marketing has shifted from loud self-promotion to generous sharing of useful information.

Bottom line: instead of making noise, marketers have had to learn to listen, observe and refine their strategies. We bet there is going to be a lot of fine-tuning taking place in the next few years, and email will remain the most efficient form of marketing.

Happy emailing!