We’ve talked a lot recently about the evolving nature of B2B direct communications, and how email may be gradually taking on the ‘junk mail’ tag from post. Whilst this is certainly still a moot point – particularly for the email service providers – perhaps we can use the issue of Christmas marketing messages to gain a glimpse of the future.

The reason Christmas is relevant for a communications comparison between many different companies is that everyone is talking, and everyone is saying pretty much the same thing: ie. “hello, thanks for your business this year, please stay in touch next year”. Admittedly some will really go to town with gifts etc., but for most, that’s basically it. Just like Christmas, this only happens once a year.

So what does this plethora of Christmas comms tell us? Well, for the first time this year, as far as my own inbound messages were concerned, emails dramatically outnumbered cards. Now I’m not going to pretend this is a scientific analysis, because A) I’ve not been keeping detailed statistical records and B) I’m a sample of one C) I’m a journalist, therefore not representative of typical business decision makers. Despite this, it is significant, because it suggests that the tide is turning away from post.

So what does this mean? “Post is dead – long live email!” I hear you cry. Well, not exactly. By the time you’ve opened your fortieth wacky Xmas email of the day, you couldn’t care less what the message was, or that they’ve given all the money they would have spent on post to charity, or that there was a viral game attached. But when the post arrived I did take time away from the computer to open it and to work out exactly who had taken time to sign their name in a card (sometimes lots of names) print a label, frank the envelope… etc. etc. You get the picture. The cards were special. The emails (most of them anyway) were clutter in my groaning inbox.

So is the shape of things to come for B2B communications? Only time will tell. The only thing we can be sure of is that as soon as one form of communications appears to be becoming commoditised, alternatives will become much more effective. And with Christmas communications at least, that’s exactly what is happening.