Editor’s Corner:
"EVERYTHING IS SO BETA," SHE SAID

In my ongoing research of e-mail marketing I call and interview many people. I phoned one list broker recently who’s helped me a lot in the past. She sounded tired and distraught. Not the perky woman I had spoken with earlier this summer.

"Yes, e-mail is hot," she told me. "But I have to spend so much time to educate these callers. Everyone wants to have it all explained in detail and we’re talking about beginning at ground zero. Talk about a consultative sale, this is more consulting than sales."

My broker friend lamented that she had not found that one client who would bring her job after job. "Everything is so beta," she said. "It’s all test, test, and test. People haven’t found a solid strategy yet and they’ll all so cagey."

As I listened I thought about the entire e-commerce world, the Web and online advertising. Sessions on e-mail marketing both at the Circulation Management Conference in New York and at the DMA in San Francisco had standing room only attendance. Marketers, list brokers and e-mail broadcast companies seem to be racing around looking for information, strategic alliances, and, of course, customers.

Just because we have the technology, web marketers think they can cook up a new medium overnight. Just because we have e-mail lists we think we can start a frenzy of direct marketing to these names.

My list broker friend is right and we should remember it about everything we do with e-commerce and e-mail. Everything is s-o-oo beta, in fact, we may all be in a state of perpetual beta. Isn’t that the beauty and the darkside of things electronic - be they real or virtual?