This is a screenshot of my email inbox.

Numerically, the number of promotional emails isn't significant.



But when you realize that's the number of promotional emails I received in just six hours, it makes you consider your own email campaigns.

If you're like me -- or any other consumer -- you likely don't have the time to open each email to see what each company is trying to sell you, with an offer they believe is provocative.

Businesses expect you to anxiously await their emails. And they expect you to open, and they expect  you to click, and they expect you to convert. 

But what they don't expect is competition from the very beginning from companies that aren't even their industry competitors. These other companies have simply crowded the promotional email marketplace.

So how do you compete in a crowded email market?

Sure, you could test new subject lines, new offers, clever snippets.

Or maybe you simply stop trying to compete.

And maybe you start considering other marketing channels that aren't as crowded, and offer more personalized, targeted messaging.

Your choice. 

Try to shout louder than everybody else who's also shouting, or create your own space, your own channel, a new way of getting into your customers' consideration set.