• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 9 hours ago

Email is not only a productive channel, it is the “least dangerous” one, according to a recent post by email expert Chad S. White on CMS Wire. 

White contends that “owning direct customer relationships through email and CRM is still the most durable marketing strategy."

But marketers have to be careful about employing artificial intelligence to help. 

“From inbox summaries to AI browsers, automation is helping and hurting brands at the same time — forcing tougher, longer-term decisions,” White adds. 

AI is not uniformly good — “it’s bringing up all kinds of challenges,” he said.  

Case in point: In the ESP space, “everyone is coming up with various AI agents that are going to make these platforms much sticker,” White continued in a video. “That’s not necessarily a good thing. “We’re entering a world of lots of pros and lots of cons.”

Marketers will  have to avoid “short-term gains sacrificing long-term gains.” Meanwhile, a survey conducted earlier this year by CMS found that these trends have had a major influence on marketing strategies: 

• The need to integrate data from multiple sources — 53%
• Use of social media channels — 52%
• Growing usage of AI in marketing—52%
• Growing importance of customer experience — 50% 
• Increased emphasis on personalized marketing — 46%
• The need to develop a more robust data strategy — 46%

Concluding, White argues that “trust is becoming the real competitive advantage. Platform volatility, misinformation and AI shortcuts are eroding confidence, making credibility and transparency central to modern marketing.”