Four years ago yesterday I published my first post on SlopeFillers.

As I look back over the 975 posts since then it’s fun to see the web of creativity woven through dozens of media, channels, and tactics.

But there’s one place where creativity is nearly absent: email marketing.

The Irony
Email is where 77% of consumers would prefer to get promotional messages, yet the marketing we use to gather emails from our websites is horrifically bland.

Email is predicted to bring in $35 for every dollar spent in 2014, yet we use busy, text-stuffed email templates with a dozen focuses (and thus, none).

Email is the most efficient channel at delivering a unique message to a unique person, yet the vast majority of resort emails are broad, generic newsletters.

New Tradition: Monday Mail
We’ve come up with rock-skipping robots and races around the world, but now it’s time to take our creativity to the inbox.

For the rest of the summer (and maybe beyond), Mondays will be devoted to sharing a creative, yet actionable, email marketing idea that can bring a bit of excitement and effectiveness back to this insanely powerful channel.

I’ve already written a bit today, but I’ll start things off with a quick idea before wrapping up.

Make Social Contests Email Contests
Every day I see at least a small handful of resorts run contests on social media. Killington had a great one the other day that you’ve probably seen before.

How long will the snow last? Guess correctly on Facebook and win a lift ticket: http://t.co/szFl9X0n3d pic.twitter.com/57zFdDb2PH

— Killington Resort (@KillingtonMtn) June 18, 2014

Within social media, this will generate comments. In the past, comments could help EdgeRank. Now, however, because the post’s text asks for that engagement, there is a good chance all this feedback will have little to no effect (or a negative one).

Instead
Instead, why not make a guess the second field in an email sign up form?

Then, instead of just letting that email sit there or sticking it into your newsletter list, get creative and send clever weekly updates on that patch of snow paired with on-mountain activities and events that are going on in the meantime.

Email marketing is about much more than harvesting addresses and shoving them into your newsletter list. It’s a powerful channel with amazing possibilities.

I think it’s time we start acting like it.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.