Returning from my summer holiday this year, I was welcomed home by over 280 emails in my hotmail inbox. I know we all complain about junk mail, but this number actually excludes those pesky little bits of communication. So if you subtract all the messages I received suggesting all sorts of gadgets and pharmaceuticals for any problems I might (or might NOT) have, it would appear that I am pretty popular.
It was only when I started to sort through my inbox that I realised I didn't have ONE email that was sent from a friend, relative, colleague...or indeed, anybody I really know. Most people knew that I was away, but this did strike me as pretty shocking (Or maybe you have no friends - Ed).
I sorted the messages into groups:
Interesting stuff I want to read: 0
Newsletters from sports clubs I've joined: 3
Offers from brands & products I'm a regular customer of: 21
Updates from LinkedIn/forums I've signed up to: 32
Random rubbish from companies I've had to give my email to in order to register interest/buy something once: 224+
Now, I'm no good with stats but that's a pretty small percentage of email that I actually have any interest in.
More importantly, there wasn't any personal email, so it seems (in my world at least) email isn't used this way anymore. Has email become purely an advertising medium? Perhaps email has now reached maturity as a personalised, targeted comms channel...
While I have 'opted in' to this stuff in some way, virtually none of it is truly personalised, relevant or interesting. When I do take the time to 'open' rather than 'delete', the majority is just your bog-standard, boring email copy. And the more I get of it, the less time I spend opening anything at all...
Email can be good, but it should be used sensibly. Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean you should send it. Just because you are pinging out lots of messages to your mailing list, don't kid yourself that you have an engaged audience at the other end.
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