Today's search craze resembles 1999's email frenzy -- here are lessons learned then.

I got a call the other day from a newspaper reporter in Baltimore doing a story on the "re-birth" of email marketing.   He said that several sources told him that the rising cost of search engine marketing  (SEM) was forcing them to do more email. The reporter went on to say that he also heard rich media was beginning to creep into email creatives once again, and was generating killer response rates. He wanted my take on all this.

Just days before this call, I read an article in one of the marketing trades titled "Can Email Be Saved?" It was filled with quotes from other marketers who (supposedly) had given up on email. They cited delivery issues, inbox clutter and the like. It seems there are many conflicting reports out there right now, and they tend to gravitate toward one extreme or the other. I decided to use this space to try and set the record straight.

So how exactly is email marketing doing?

Before I tell you, let’s take a look at the current SEM market. To me, the meteoric rise of the search industry circa 2004 is taking on an eerie resemblance to the email marketing frenzy circa 1999. So much money is now being pitched at search that one cannot begin to count the number of companies who are holding their catcher’s mitt up high with "we specialize in SEM" emblazoned on the palm. Even companies that have core businesses which again, to me, seem a bit of a leap from search are finding creative ways to incorporate the catch-phrase into their media kits.

A recent Google search on the term "search engine marketing" returned 6,300,000 listings. I would venture to guess that 90 percent of these Web sites have the words "experts," "specialists" or "leader" somewhere in them. Add in the stock market factor, ala Google’s IPO or record earnings at Yahoo!, and you can bet there are more "specialists" on the way. Does that mean there are millions of true search specialists in our industry? No. So how do you know which companies are doing it well and which aren’t? Read on.

Email marketing, for better or worse, has been there and done that. In the early days, the industry witnessed a similar flood of companies -- some good and way too many bad. Today the good and bad still coexist, but the flood of companies is only ankle-high. Of course, these survivors all probably still claim to be email marketing "specialists," if not more. The fact that they have survived alone tends to add enough credibility to impress the odd marketer or reporter. Dig a little deeper into some of these companies and you’ll find they aren’t doing much with email at all. They are simply keeping the service as a placeholder for the next ramp-up so they can follow the pack once more around the track. 

I will simply tell you this: Customer acquisition is the most difficult area of direct marketing, bar none. This holds true across direct mail, telemarketing and every other channel. Many companies saw the dollars being spent and rushed out to hang up a shingle. Unfortunately, when they actually tried acquiring customers through email, few actually succeeded. Those that failed will likely tell you they were doing gangbusters until one thing or another ruined the channel for them. That "thing," more times than not, was a lack of genuine expertise. True specialists can market in the most adverse of conditions. In fact, that’s what they love doing the most.

What’s my advice? Never follow a follower. Instead, dig in with the innovators. Look for companies going off in their own direction. Spot the companies that are constantly in the product development/testing stage. After all, testing is what marketing is all about, isn’t it? When you find one of these companies, ask them how email marketing is doing and then take good notes.

Getting back to search -- I am sure there are far more differences than similarities between its rise and email’s rise several years back. However, I do have this nagging suspicion that many of today’s search "specialists" won’t be specializing in it five years from now. One thing or another will ruin it for them, I’m sure.

As president and chief operating officer of NetCreations/PostMasterDirect, Michael Mayor is an 18-year veteran of direct marketing and a recognized pioneer of email marketing. Mayor joined NetCreations as one of the company's first employees in 1998, and played a key role in helping to build the largest email list management company in the industry today. He has pioneered many of the email marketing industry's standards and best practices. Mayor is a leading advocate of privacy, is a frequent speaker at industry functions, and is chairman for the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Email Committee.