Sitting down for a chat with Morgan Stewart

I love talking with smart people in the email industry. In fact, I truly enjoy talking with folks whom I would consider to be at the forefront of email to pick there brains on things like what the inbox Is going to look like in 4 years, how they would define a “great” email program and what they see are the 3 biggest problems are in the email industry today.

To me, Morgan is one of the guys who are looked at as being a thought leader and one of the few people who can at a moments notice tell you something so incredible, it would make your head spin.

So how does Morgan define a “great” email program? He thinks that companies who “get their subscribers more engaged over time” are the real winners and I could not agree with him more. But who does this I asked? The one program that came to his mind was Food Lion, a grocer based out of North Carolina. He mentioned that they have the uncanny ability to drive customer engagement with their email, because their messages are not only relevant to each subscriber based on in-store shopping habits, but they include a number of “engagement drivers” such as games, sweepstakes and polls. Great for the subscriber, but bad for the email professional like me to check out since I need to have one of their “cards” to get signed up.

As I stated above one of the things that I like to do with thought leaders is pick their brain on what they think the inbox is going to look like 4 years from now. To me, this question is especially hard because who would have thought where we would have been at 6 or 7 years ago, but nonetheless I like asking it anyway. Morgan brought up a good point with how social media today is a “phenomenon without a plan”. Since no one has been able to figure out how to monetize it, he thinks that there will be a tremendous push to a “social inbox”. With the advent of MySpace wanting to get into email, he thinks that someone needs to figure it out and he suggested that I look at a company called “Other Inbox” to get some perspective. Additionally, mobile will play a huge part in, but with the introduction of the iPhone and the rapid introduction of “copycat” devices, he sees the technical challenges fading away (e.g., rendering), while the practical issues of how to communicate with people on the go will come to the forefront.

So what is wrong with email? I mean what are the biggest problems that are facing the email industry today? Morgan’s answer is simple and yet so relevant First, he thinks that there is a pervasive print mentality in the industry. I could not agree more with him in that email is not direct mail. Second, he believes that there is too much focus on deliverability, that while deliverability is a crucial part of email marketing, the share of voice in the email space is disproportionate to the detriment of his last point. Morgan believes that email is too siloed in most organizations because we still have trouble communicating the value of email to the C-Suite.

Most of you may know that Morgan works for what I would consider to be a top tier ESP, Exact Target. I have worked with E.T. in the past and have found their application to be extremely powerful. However, one of the things that impresses me the most about Exact Target is their ability to produce excellent educational material to the masses in this industry. I never miss a whitepaper and continue to read their blog almost daily for a great bit of insight into the email world.

However, I asked Morgan what he wished people would know about Exact Target that they didn’t already know. He had 2 things that came to mind which intrigued me. First, he talked about how ET had a very extensive relational data model which makes them nimble when it comes to integration. Second he mentioned how the ET platform is extremely adept at one to one communications specifically in the areas of SMS and voice messaging which spans well beyond the limitless capabilities that ESP’s offer in the email marketing space. To me it seems as if ET is trying to align and market their platform as a true digital communications offering, which is cool to see.

We planned for 30 minutes but ended up talking for 75 which seemed still way too short given what we were talking about. To me, it seems that email comes easy for Morgan and he has a quiet confidence about him that I really admire. Morgan not only represents Exact Target well, but truly embodies the character of someone who has been looked at as a visionary in this industry.

Now for the fun stuff…..As things go, I am a fun person by nature so I always like to throw some curves at folks when I talk to them. So here were my not-so-email related questions that I posed to Morgan. Enjoy.

Superman or Batman? <Morgan> – Superman.

Animal House of Caddyshack? <Morgan> Caddyshack (he seemed to struggle with this one)

Arizona or Pittsburgh? (this chat was pre-Super Bowl) <Morgan> – “Bud Light”

Bruce Springsteen or U2? <Morgan> – U2

Last 5 posts by Andrew Kordek

• When Does Relevance Border on Creepiness? Thoughts on Re-targeting. - May 8th, 2012
• “Tell A Friend” Email And The Lost Opportunity - April 20th, 2012
• Think Big….but Start Small - March 14th, 2012
• Email Deliverability Sarcasm Part 2 (and why you should never go on vacation) - February 14th, 2012
• It's All About The Experience. Right? - January 13th, 2012