Been asked recently about relentless rise of email and a possibility of it to cannibalise traditional DM. I think this is an interesting qestion that requires a bit of nuancing.
If the question is 'is email going to totally replace DM in the future' my answer is no. The old marketing adage is 'easy in, easy out', meaning that in many instances prospects and customers that came through email are the most likely to churn. And it still doesn't work for cold charity recruitment. Believe it or not, but higher CPA is sometimes actually a more desirable objective.
If the question is 'is email going to replace DM for certain purposes' the answer is yes, particularly for (e)CRM, as it is easier and cheaper to personalize through email. In other words, email works very well for customer service and loyalty comms.
I see DM and email as two complementary tools that together punch much better than if used separately. It's in the interest of email effectiveness to preserve DM.
