• by editor , David Baker , April 11, 2011

The military term "Broken Arrow" defines the point when military calls in all available aircraft to a friendly position that has been overrun by the foe, creating a high probability of "Blue-on-Blue". I think we may have hit that position over the past week with the recent increase in phishing attacks driven by the breach of security at a major ESP.

The sheer reaction from marketers, email marketers, database providers, security professionals and financial institutions has almost created this "Broken Arrow" metaphor. What if email response rates dwindle due to increase in phishing attacks? What if marketers react and communicate -- as some have - to NOT click on links in email? What do you do if you are an email revenue machine? This is something the industry has been concerned about and fighting for years.

The issue boiled up at the Forrester Marketing Forum last week. What timing, right? Email has gotten quite commoditized as a delivery mechanism over the last two years -- will that trend continue?

I don't know that we are ready to drop bombs on our own teams to try to solve the concerns the marketers have, yet I do believe each event (good or bad) that impacts the digital industry provides an opportunity to pivot. So I prefer to look at this as an opportunity to direct a real multichannel strategy, one interdependent on connected channels and experiences. Email marketing has lived in a shell for years, with limited budget, limited vision outside of linear communication strategies and has not survived well in worlds of real-time attribution.

This is the time to reorganize how you prioritize the Next Generation program. If you are not scrambling now, you will be scrambling in a few months to prop up those email response rates that will fall in the coming months. Those progressives that have been synched with social, mobile, search, online media , mobile media, building apps and more explicit targeting in all channels will have the ability to pivot and provide channel shift trends to bear the weight. Those that have measurement buttoned up can work through the cross attribution and shared attribution in a symbiotic manner rather than a predatory way.

Security will always be a challenge and number-one priority for all firms that house any form of customer data. The diversity of your challenge and fluidity of your organization is what will help you survive. Now may be a time to rethink how you're structured and the organizational KPIs that separate business LOBs.

Consumers will continue to show an inclination to reward brands (in the form of implicit and explicit data) for clear "value exchanges." Consumers will continue to comment in open forums and connect with broader audiences and networks that aren't as intimate or influential as the face-to-face networks of the past. Consumers will continue to expect FREEmium services on the Internet and convenience services through mobile. Consumers will continue to engage in all forms of "rewards" and "loyalty" across more brands than they can recall at any given point. All consumer, generational, gender, and global trends support this growing demand for more brand intimacy and bi-directional convenience values (quicker shopping - quicker monetization of activities). The channels aren't what stops you, in this case email. With email as such a revenue driver for many e-commerce and lead oriented businesses, the next generation strategy needs to find diversity in how you manage your marketing mix. Email won't be the easy way out in the coming years.

I love this quote and hope I see it on some brand's wall at some point: "If you can't win the race, make the one ahead of you break the record.