Datran Media's Sean O'Neal debates the idea that the rules of email marketing need to change.

Back in March, Forrester Analyst James Nail spoke at the Bigfoot Interactive Conference -- an address covered by many industry publications. Like most in our industry, I have a great deal of respect for Forrester and for Mr. Nail, which is one of the reasons I was so surprised by the context of his remarks.

It was as though he could have been speaking more than a year ago.

Nail patterned his remarks around the assertion that it was time to change the rules of email marketing, since consumer resistance has constricted the growth of online databases.

"As it's practiced, email marketing is reaching a plateau," Nail said.

Citing Forrester Research, he said 78 percent of online customers subscribe to at least one marketing email, unchanged from 2003. The same data showed 86 percent of non-subscribers -- people who have never subscribed to an email marketing program -- say they are unlikely to subscribe. And 45 percent of subscribers are uninterested in subscribing to more email.

For more than two years, well before the passage of CAN-SPAM, Datran Media had shifted our email marketing model toward increased contextual relevance -- with a basis on consumers’ behavior and interaction with brands they know and trust. This is one reason why our business, in line with the businesses of a few other email marketing firms that made similar shifts, has been growing ever since. When you offer meaningful value to consumers, based on their own behavior with brands they trust, it’s far less intrusive -- and far more effective.

Of course, consumers who subscribe to almost anything online are going to be more vigilant about who owns their email addresses than they were years ago. This only makes sense in the post-CAN-SPAM world. Even the most naïve consumer by now is probably aware of the meaning of “co-registration,” as well as what it means for the shared ownership of his or her email address. Say what you will about CAN-SPAM: it certainly raised consumer awareness of how this business works.

One of the reasons Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has continued to remain hot, even after two years of staggering growth, is its essential attraction -- SEM is a “pull” model rather than a “push” model of marketing. Instead of bombarding consumers with marketing messages, SEM delivers them only when a consumer seeks relevant information. The CEO of one SEM, icrossing’s Jeffrey Herzog, actually trademarked the term “Reverse Direct Marketing” for this reason -- because that’s exactly why SEM is so compelling.

It’s also why well-executed email marketing is so compelling, and has been for some time among industry leaders.

We routinely run multiple, multi-tiered campaigns for our clients that leverage a “serve the consumer” mindset, aligned with something else Nail stated in his remarks: “Adopt a proactive service mindset. Start to think about those personas and those purchase scenarios. How can email support the consumer's goal? And test, test, test ... but be smart, smart, smart. Understand that the old techniques are not adequate."

How well has this mindset been working for the clients and partners of firms that focus on this contextual model? “When you refresh the creative on the fly and continue to provide new offers interspersed with tips or suggestions to consumers who are interacting with your brand, as long as it’s executed in a relevant fashion, it will invariably drive new business,” says Tanya Brown of WebClients. “Our work has proven this axiom again and again. The more contextually relevant and fresh the offer is, the better its performance will be.”

No matter what kind of message you hope to employ via email, the three things to remember are relevance, relevance and relevance. Any behavior on the web or response to an email is potentially a triggerable event. This added relevance guarantees a more targeted message, which results in better response. Combine demographic, psychographic, transactional and purchase information, and you have created either a contextually or behaviorally relevant offer. This is true one-to-one marketing, and is only possible in email.

Ideally, following up a publisher’s email with the right kind of tactical offers implies blending the delivery mechanisms. But, if you’re wary of pop-ups, another email with a tip or suggestion can help enhance the contextual relevance of all the messages in total, leading to an offer to follow. Just as surround sessions drove extremely high response rates when they were introduced, and many still manage to outperform most banner-style campaigns, a well-executed email program will amplify a marketer’s message and repeat it, marrying the fundamental principals of marketing -- amplify and repeat -- while doing so in a contextual environment based on a user’s own, previous selections.

Sean O'Neal is chief marketing officer for Datran Media. He has managed marketing and sales for the company virtually since inception, and over the past 2 1/2 years has built out a world-class sales and marketing team.