I’m still buzzing from a call a few days ago with a marketer working for a well-known Western university. These calls are always energizing because we talk about people’s struggles, what kinds of success they’re looking for, and what we can do to help.
After the call, I felt more optimistic than I had in weeks. I wasn’t just talking with someone who understands the advantages email can bring to their organization. Why? Because her team wants to invest in email instead of chasing cooler channels like Reddit, TikTok or Snap.
This was a refreshing change from the air of pessimism that settled over the entire email marketplace in 2024.
Q4 is more fraught this year
About a third of email platform users migrate to new services every year. Another third just did that, so they’re learning to use their services. The rest are content where they are but are looking for more innovative ways to do their work.
Those innovation seekers usually drive a fair amount of investment in things like new automations or workflows. But this year, many companies are taking their feet off the accelerator and pausing their quest for innovation.
We can’t afford to coast for a few more months, especially now. Holiday email campaigns will soon be up against a tidal wave of last-minute election emails.
Time to step on the gas
We’re just a few weeks away from the make-or-break fourth quarter. But even if you don’t rely on Q4 to hit your numbers, you’re likely getting ready to assemble your budget and strategic plan for 2025.
You might be nervous if you will be asking for more money. If your company isn’t fully committed to email, your budget probably covers your costs. Maybe there’s a tiny bit of fun money for something innovative, like updated templates or a new marketing automation platform, but that’s it.
Some of this apprehension could be not knowing how to sell the budget increase to their bosses. We might be major-league pros at marketing the company, but drop the ball when advocating for ourselves.
So, let’s address how to turn this critical period to our advantage.
1. Holiday 2024: Competing with an election messaging blitz
Thanksgiving to Christmas is the email Super Bowl, and you’re in the fourth quarter with the clock running out.
Before the end of this quarter, determine your email cadence. Line up your campaigns. Review, revise, and organize your segments. Write out everything on your version of a coach’s play board, so everybody sees at a glance what to do. Huddle up with your team and review every part of your plan. When the calendar ticks over to October 1, you’ll be ready.
Now is the time to create your strategy and decide how to overcome your deficiencies. Putting that off is the same as changing all your plays halfway through the fourth quarter when the other team controls the ball. And especially not this year, when a blitz of last-minute appeals for votes and funding threatens to obliterate inboxes.
Dig deeper: New rules for bulk email senders from Google, Yahoo: What you need to know
Also in this critical period, many companies lock down their tech requests by Oct. 1. You still can prepare and test your holiday automations and plan for sandbagging from two opposing teams: political messaging and your market competitors.
2. Budgets: Show execs the payoff
Historically, companies have underinvested in the email channel but enjoy the highest returns on their measly investments. It boggles my mind that companies will put so much money into social media and mobile despite email’s solid track record.
It might be too late to fix this budgeting problem now, with your attention diverted a dozen ways. So, put this on your 2025 action plan.
Take time in the coming year to build a business case supporting a bigger email budget, one that provides for innovative programs to make your marketing team an even stronger revenue-driving partner.
To get a budget increase from your boss, you must show exactly how it will pay off. Your boss might have told you, “Don’t propose anything new this year.” I’ve heard that, too. And I’ve always come back proposing new programs, but I put dollar signs around them and say, “If you invest this much, you gain that.”
Dig deeper: 4 inbox-altering changes to watch for
If you want investments that pay off, look at changes in creative content. Invest in things that help you develop strategy, create or fine-tune marking automations, improve your transactional messaging, or pay an outside agency to help.
These low-hanging fruits usually yield big wins without extreme costs.
3. Message for your boss
I’d like to speak directly to the executive evaluating your budget request this year. So, please pass this along.
Dear Boss,
Don’t be so hard on your email marketers!
As a 25-year veteran in the email space, I know you should invest in email. Look at the ROI of the channels you use. It’s highest in email. Whatever you invest will drive that number higher.
Sure, it’s been around forever. But whatever you invest to make it smarter will pay off. The days of hitting your revenue goals by increasing emails are over. Consumers are tired of the onslaught on their inboxes. Maybe you’re not contributing to that, but your messages are still getting caught up in the tidal wave.
Scroll back a few paragraphs and read about the coming explosion of messages this October and November. It’s not just from your competition, but also from everyone running for everything from President to dogcatcher.
Your team needs help. Look for investments to make email and your team more effective. Expand your team. Increase your bandwidth. Bring in strategic resources from outside agencies that can help you organize a priority for growth based upon a solid ROI.
Now isn’t the time to phone in email campaigns — as we have for the last 25 years. Your customers truly want relevant content and a relationship with brands that provide it.
As an executive, your job is to greenlight your team’s requests if they have backed them up with payoff numbers.
Thanks for your time,
Ryan
Wrapping up
Email marketing is at a crossroads. The things we’ve done that made easy money for the company don’t work how they used to. If you doubt it, read this from the Forrester Wave: Email Marketing Service Providers Q3 2024:
“Mastering email basics is no longer enough — it is time to renovate email marketing to get the most out of the intimate bond that email enables between a brand and its customers.”
We need to take email seriously. Take time now to think a few plays ahead. Come up with a plan that will finish the year strong. At the same time, consider your next budget request and ask for what you need to start next year from a stronger position.
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