Pay: Expert Spotlight //

This series will take you deeper into the lives of our experts. This interview was edited to make it more concise and clear.

Kath Pay is a marketing expert who has been working in email marketing for the majority of her career. She still loves what she does. She gives presentations around the world, consults her clients and is the author of “Holistic Email Marketing”, a best-selling title. She also contributes to MarTech.

New South Wales is the starting point for this story.

Q. How did it all begin?

A In the 1990s I founded a web design company. In 1996, I was approached by a client with a request to use email marketing. This was a completely new concept. We looked into it and created the core of an email-marketing system. We then rolled out the system to her and to the rest of our clients. Pretty soon, email marketing had taken over my web design company and I was doing it full-time. Then, I started writing and speaking.

It was because there were not many providers in the U.K. at that time. Even big household brands from Australia were easy to sell. It was easy to sell, even to big household brands in Australia. They wanted a local solution, so they moved to the U.K.

I was active in the Direct Marketing Association (now Data & Marketing Association), served on the Email Marketing Council for 10 years and created a DMA blog. I decided in 2009 that I no longer wanted to be a tech solution provider. I quit my job and became a consultant full-time.

Q : That must have been something new.

A :Nobody has ever corrected me for saying this: I believe I was one the first email marketing consultants. Then I started to do a lot more training. I was a trainer in email marketing, and was the first person in the UK to offer personalization training. Then, I continued to speak, write and train. After some research, I found that I have spoken in 53 cities across 27 countries, five continents and 53 cities.

Q: Wow. It’s uncommon for you to have started on one path, and then changed to another. You’ve worked in email for the majority of your career, apart from initial web design.

A: Yes. I love email. Email is still new to me.

Dig deep: Why email marketing is important: A guide for marketers

Q : How long have you been based in the UK?

A: Yes. Although I have been living in Antigua since the last few years, my office and business are still based in the UK.

Q.Was there a chance that you were at the right place and time? You were prepared for the email that suddenly popped up.

A :Today people choose to be email marketers, but most of us fall into it by accident. It is hard to believe that so many of us just happen upon this essential channel for digital marketing. I had good timing but never imagined I would become an email marketing expert.

Q.So much changes in the digital age. Even though younger consumers might not open email, there is still a large audience that will. It has remained a major channel, right?

A : The thing about youth — this has been proved, because 10 Years ago, we said that youth today do not open emails. Guess what happens when they get a job. They begin to use email.

Q.Is it a generational issue or an age-related one?

A : Yes, everyone uses email.

Q. Tell us about your business and book, “Holistic Email Marketing”.

A :When i started consulting the buzzwords of multi-channel were omnichannel and multi-channel. Brands said we needed to connect our channels. The wrong approach was taken to the question. Instead of asking ‘How can we make social and email work together?,’ they should have looked at the customer. How can we provide a seamless and enhanced customer experience on the channel our audience prefers (and when they do).

Why would we connect the channels? To improve our efficiency, or to benefit the customer? Holistic – I’m from Australia, and I grew up in a holistic medical system. That’s what we are looking for; we need to look at the customer. All channels are interconnected.

Q. What is the future of email advertising that excites you or worries you?

A :I cannot avoid the elephant in my room: generative artificial intelligence. It’s exciting, but it’s also scary. It is exciting because it has potential. However, it must be properly implemented. It’s understandable that email marketers are excited, as we tend to have a limited budget, fewer resources and feel under pressure. It’s easy for people to over-rely on generative AI when they have a magic bullet. It’s very easy to join the bandwagon, without doing enough research, training or establishing rules and regulations.

It’s still early. You should look at the problems and challenges you face and see if generative artificial intelligence can help you solve them.

The article Kath pay: Spotlight on an expert first appeared on MarTech.