subject: Email is Dying…Again [print this page] Email is DyingAgain Email is DyingAgain
Have you noticed how popular zombie movies and books have become in the last couple of years? From movies like Zombieland, to TV shows like The Walking Dead, to books like World War Z pop culture is developing a real fixation on creatures that are pronounced dead, but just keep going.
Maybe all this interest in the walking dead explains the regular obituaries we hear for email, even though it continues to be a powerful (and profitable) tool for many marketers. People keep pronouncing it dead and it just keeps on working.
Just recently, comScore released a report on digital trends from 2010 that provided some fresh arguments that the use of email as a form of communication is dying. According to the report, usage of web-based email dropped by 8% in 2010 (continuing a recent trend). Admittedly, comScore's figures are fairly significant, showing that usage was down nearly 60% among younger users aged 12-17, and dropped 18% for 25-34 year olds. The trend continued for some of the older age groups (35-44: -8%, 45-54: -12%). The 18-24 age group stayed basically the same with a 1% drop and the oldest segments (55-64: +22% and 65+: +28%) actually increased significantly.
So, what should we make of these numbers? Well, there are two immediate issues with drawing too many long-term conclusions from the data.
The figures only apply to web-based email. While web-based email remains a staple for many email users, there are still plenty of people who use non-web-based email systems and those numbers don't appear in this report.
The most significant drop is with users who haven't yet reached an age when they will have jobs that utilize email communication regularly. From the early days of email, it has been a powerful tool in business. So, while the younger generations haven't yet become major email users, it doesn't mean they won't make significantly more use of it once they enter the professional world.
Certainly a number of new methods of communication have cut into email's usage over the past few years. From instant messaging, to Facebook messages, to Twitter posts, to SMS, there are more and more forms of written communication available to users today than ever before. Certainly with so many more options fragmenting the digital communication world, it makes sense that email usage would begin to decline from the days when it was pretty much the only game in town. But, a decline as new options enter the market is far from a death sentence.
Email marketers will tell you that it remains an incredibly powerful tool in driving sales. Business users will also make the argument that email's "formality" (compared to social media, SMS, etc.) means it isn't going to be replaced as the prominent form of written communication to get business done. All these new forms of communication will continue to affect email's role in communication, but the idea that email is going to die anytime soon remains about as unlikely as a zombie takeover of the world.
