Brave New World: E-Mail’s Role in Web 2.0

2006 was the year of Web 2.0, as online social networks, blogs, RSS, podcasting, wikis, and all forms of consumer generated media exploded across the Internet.

And what is Web 2.0, anyway? By most accounts, Web 2.0 encompasses the range of technologies that allows consumers to control how and when they access information. Forrester Research defines Web 2.0 as social computing, or a social structure in which technology puts power in the hands of individuals, not institutions. Overall, most agree that Web 2.0 represents a relationship shift between established firms and their customers.

But what about e-mail? We’re now well into 2007 and these “emerging” Web 2.0 channels are becoming pretty mainstream, so mainstream in fact, that many e-mail marketers are wondering how emerging digital media will impact their programs. You might think that e-mail has been passed over by its new media cousins, but this workhorse of digital communications continues to outperform all other digital channels. Far from being relegated to the slow-lane, e-mail marketing is now critical to your Web 2.0 strategy. How so?

First of all, it’s important to note that e-mail does not seem to be losing share to newer technologies. A study our company did last October reported that 100% of respondents currently use e-mail compared to 63% using blogs; 36% podcasting and 28% RSS. In addition, 84% of respondents receive up to 30 email offers per week, and 72% of respondents open more than 60% of permission-based offers.

But how does e-mail fit into — rather than compete with — Web 2.0 technologies? Again, it’s all about using consumer’s choice and putting power in their hands. Remember that e-mail marketers are well-advised to let users change their preferences (which newsletters do you want, how often do you want them, and in what form: RSS or e-mail?).

Next, you should start to integrate e-mail with social applications like mapping sites, for example. A classic Web 2.0 application, mapping sites are where consumers can overlay travel directions with information about products and services located along their route. Say you’ve used a map site to plot out a ski trip to Maine. Users can also input directives like “show me hotels, gas, theme parks, etc. along this route.” Therefore, the user is signaling to a hotelier that she’s open to special discounts, via e-mail, for their local properties. In using a mapping application, the consumer is pulling information in lieu of the marketer pushing it, and e-mail becomes the logical follow-up for information requested.

Many people equate Web 2.0 with AJAX technology, which is a relatively new technique used in Web application development that allows more interactivity between Web sites. For example, when on a mapping site, consumers no longer have to click away to other pages to find hotels, reviews, prices, etc. AJAX is very prevalent on mapping sites, where users are constantly configuring content according to their personal travel needs. This type of interactive capability is a big aspect of social computing and there’s plenty of “community sharing” on mapping sites in which people trade itineraries and driving directions with others (refer a friend for special offers, invite peers to do reviews, invite people to join contests, etc). And they do this by e-mail.

Now, as you plan that ski trip to Maine, some folks will want to turn all that good information – e.g. personalized driving directions– into an individual RSS feed. While most people think of RSS feeds as standardized news or entertainment tidbits fed to thousands of users, highly personalized RSS feeds like this are possible through some e-mail service providers. Forrester Research’s latest report on social computing points out that a marketer’s approach to the two media (e-mail and RSS) should overlap, because both deliver direct communications electronically, can be customized, and in many cases rely on a single technology vendor. Forrester’s report also reminds us that companies can start marketing via RSS without creating new content. E-mail newsletters or on-site programs can be easily repurposed for RSS delivery.

RSS is very well suited to travel information because travel plans inherently need to factor in frequently changing content (e.g. weather alerts, hotel discounts etc) and need to be pushed quickly to the user. Feeds about gas prices, and where one can find the cheapest gas station near their destination, is a great example.

Where does e-mail work into these communications? The consumer first pulls information by setting up an RSS feed, and a hotel marketer, for example, reacts by incorporating content from individualized RSS feeds into follow-up e-mails….usually resulting in pretty high clickthrough thanks to the message’s extreme relevance.

Note, when giving out their e-mail in the Web 1.0 world, users were often asked to complete a checklist of preferences (hobbies, affinities) so the marketer “could send them relevant offers.” It became quickly apparent that very few people wanted to check all those boxes. But today, simply through the course of interacting with a Web 2.0 site like a mapping website, you give up that kind of information anyway. After all, you’ve identified your hobby (skiing) and are busily checking out certain types of restaurants or hotels on the way.

We’ve established how personalized RSS feeds can inform e-mail marketing communications. What about the reverse? Web analytics programs track shopping cart behavior and subsequent e-mail conversions and that information may then alter the content a marketer attaches to a personalized RSS feed.

As previously stated, Web 2.0 is all about social computing. Now we all know about e-mail marketing’s classic “refer-a-friend” technique. Social computing has enhanced “refer-a-friend” programs: technology changes have evolved traditional “lead capture” techniques into a more Web 2.0 “involve a friend” approach. The traditional referral program just asked for friends’ names. Now you involve them. One home improvement store allowed customers to design a room online (paint colors and all) and then e-mail different versions to friends. Those friends then voted on the décor choices, and in the process, received an invitation to opt-in to the company e-mail newsletter. And as a great side benefit, the marketer was able to glean some of their personal preferences based on the décor choices they rejected or selected.

Overall, e-mail was crucial in the Web 1.0 value chain. For example, the marketer would decide what product was “on special” that week and push out e-mail offers to the opt-in list. Or, the marketer would use the Web site navigation hierarchy to drive purchase (e.g. promotions on the home page). Product relevance to the target e-mail list was not necessarily high, it was simply what was being promoted that week.

In the Web 2.0 value chain, the consumer decides which products are most interesting to them through keyword searches or blog recommendations. The purchase is then initiated from deep inside a Web site – where the search navigation drops the user – and hierarchical Web site navigation (i.e. starting on the home page) is ignored. If the shopping process is abandoned, remarketing e-mails can push a consumer over the finish line. Therefore e-mail closes the “search loop.” Other places a marketer can use e-mail is to encourage a customer to retrieve forgotten shopping bags, or share wish lists with family and friends.

E-mail definitely hasn’t become obsolete in the Web 2.0 world, but it has shifted position. Some might interpret this as a demotion, but we disagree. Quite the contrary, in fact. E-mail now completes or prolongs the marketer consumer dialogue, rather than simply starting it.

Eamon O Neill is vice president of product management at Bluestreak.