October 2025, EMday has barely closed its doors. Three conferences devoted to “new channels” were enough to revive the mythology favored by the digital marketing email is dead, long live the replacement.
RCS, WhatsApp Business, conversational messaging... Some already see these as revolutionary alternatives ready to sweep away old practices.
This narrative has been running for almost twenty years. It survives better than any marketing solution.
Welcome to turfu, where email has disappeared for the forty-second time!
The advantage of being a dinosaur, or a boomer (it's up to you), is that you've seen all the revolutions come and go: the “unstoppable” SMS, the “unavoidable” push browser, the “revolutionary” chatbot (they were all meant to replace email, remember).
Every time, it's the same story: technological innovation at the service of your ROI to save any lack of strategy.
If the same scenarios are repeated in these new channels, we all already know the end of the story:
Spam is still spam, even in enhanced RCS or “conversational” WhatsApp messages.
New channels: technical innovation, imaginative marketing
RCS and WhatsApp Business open up interesting possibilities, based on both new uses (hello, the smartphone always at hand) and new technologies (whether proprietary or not).
- The first enhances SMS by adding visuals, buttons and interactive components.
- The second promises a “close” relationship” and direct access to the preferred messaging space of millions of users.
On paper, everything is perfect.
In presentation slides too.
So what's the problem? Why should there be a problem? It's true, it's annoying to always see the glass as half empty.
This article is freely available.
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Consent, opt-in, rules of use: the fundamentals that make people angry
There you go, Olivier, you're being obnoxious. We haven't even started having fun and you've come to talk to us about the legal framework.
Yes, the marketing industry is never short of imagination when it comes to getting around the constraint of consent. The temptation to believe that these channels benefit from a kind of “gray zone” is immense.”, where it would be possible to communicate on a massive scale again, quickly, without the «painful» constraints of the RGPD.
Acquisition dreams reminiscent of the heyday of cobranding, shared files and multiple opt-in competitions.
The reality is far less fun and yet very clear:
Specific*, traceable, verifiable, contextual opt-in
* for RCS SMS/MMS optin is enough for now, for Meta the rules are more vague since 2024.
And the business risks are a lot less fun, too:
Operator blockage, administrative canal closure, damaged reputation, operating costs
RCS and WhatsApp are not a free pass. These channels are regulated (not just by Meta's terms of use), contractualized and monitored.
Just because it's new doesn't mean it has to be «new".« test and learn »on your subscriber bases (translate as : I'm doing some dirty work and I'll see what happens if I ever take the time to look at the results.).
WhatsApp Marketing: a proprietary tool, Meta imposes its rules of the game
WhatsApp Business feeds many fantasies. But the Meta ecosystem leaves nothing to chance.
The dream opt-in doesn't exist
A number in a CRM, an SMS opt-in, an order... all this doesn't mean much to Meta, which requires a very detailed explicit, contextualized and unambiguous evidence.
Access to the user's private room has to be earned. WhatsApp closes the door very quickly if the advertiser doesn't take the trouble to show its marketing boots.
Meta rules can't be bypassed
Meta applies its rules. No negotiation, no commercial empathy (it's Meta, you shouldn't expect too much either). It owns the channel, and you pay to play by its rules:
- Template messages to be validated
- Pay-per-conversation pricing
- Message classification (marketing, service, mixed)
- Risk of permanent account blocking
Brand- or user-initiated message
One room, two atmospheres. The heart of the system is based on this distinction.
Most of today's aberrations stem from a total lack of understanding of how conversation works and the impact it has on the user experience:
- The push marketing message“ expensive, tires quickly and blocks quickly
- User-initiated conversation value creation. Quality relationships
Push is often the obvious choice, because advertisers “know” how to do it. Except that this is exactly what will burn out the channel.
RCS: enriched text messaging and its abuses too
RCS is often presented as “the future of messaging”.
Enriched content and media, buttons, carousels (genius! bring me the person responsible for this brilliant idea), visuals, interactions.
Here again, the temptation is strong: imagine a revolution that will turn SMS upside down! Just as AMP turned email on its head (huhuhu, it's a gift because I love Google as much as Meta).
The presentations are polished and appealing. As much as the “creative” models stand out from the crowd. what landing pages and emails already do. Waouw, amazing!
The classic mistake: turning RCS into an email with a moustache
Many dream of using RCS to send... exactly the same messages as email. A cover with an animated gif if possible, a title, a text full of emoji and a Call to action to take advantage of the promo code that will expire in 5... 4... 3...
But shorter, more expensive and more intrusive. The channel is not the issue. Imagination and strategy are!
Oh, look... the spam filters are already here
A number of players have had the bright idea of testing the RCS in « quick and dirty« . No need to translate here, is there? Well, it's just good old massive promotion, with the floodgates wide open.
Operators reacted immediately: automatic filtering, rule tightening.
The channel is still in its infancy, and already bears the stigma of bad marketing practices. It's the beginning of a great story.
Operator / phone / software fragmentation
Even if the arrival of Apple iOS phones opens up the market, RCS depends on the terminal, version (Android), operator and Google Messages support.
In short, once again a fine promise that won't have a single rendering but rather a profoundly heterogeneous experience, with fallbacks to be expected (no, SMS isn't dead).
What these channels can do for you
RCS and WhatsApp shine when they're used, provided you've thought about usage and messages beforehand:
- the relationship
- customer service
- confirmation
- follow-up
- assistance
- reinsurance
- notification
In short, when they are of real use to the recipient.
They fail when they simply replay, in a more intrusive way, the bad habits of email marketing: aggressive promotion, context-free reminders, disproportionate marketing pressure, lack of relational logic.
A conversational channel used as a one-sided megaphone is anything but conversational.
Marketing strategies: what should be done and what many will do anyway
A sustainable, robust strategy is based on :
- clear governance
- controlled marketing pressure
- well-thought-out segmentation
- a real understanding of usage
- consistent multi-channel orchestration
- absolute respect for consent
Many will and are already doing something else... or at least what they already know how to do:
- buy WhatsApp files
- push RCS unsolicited
- aggressive content
- no test phase
- total ignorance of UX
- lack of long-term management
Canals never die naturally. They are reduced to garbage by unsavory practices.
Example of RCS that splashes: Orange x Nespresso
The example below is a perfect illustration of what happens when technical sophistication tries to compensate for a total lack of strategy.
Admit it, it's bad luck to have come across a grumpy old man like me.
Certainly content that is “rich” in form, but poor in intent and totally disconnected from actual use.
By way of background, I'm an Orange fiber customer. There must be an SMS opt-in lying around somewhere.
However in my preferences: no SMS. If you want to talk to me, there's no hurry, so an email is fine. And not too much email. No canvassing or anything like that, just electronic invoicing and consumption tracking.
And that was the case until this RCS message. Everything was going swimmingly, my consent was respected.
Well, this is a magnificent ultimate combo or epic win A cobranding RCS to push a promotional offer during Black Friday for a coffee brand I don't care for and I don't own the coffeemaker. All without asking me if I'm okay with receiving this type of message.
I might as well tell you, by e-mail it would have gone straight into the garbage can. But then, between a message to my mum and an exchange with my relatives to organize the weekend... he didn't stand a chance.
Get out of my private chats right now.
Unluckily for its designers (or thanks to them), in terms of UX, it's easier to click on the link to clear it than to text STOP to XXXXX.
So I'll let you guess what became of this fine technological innovation.
Novelty has never made up for a lack of strategic vision
WhatsApp and RCS bring new, relevant and sometimes really useful capabilities.
Is email really the problem? (You have two hours)
The problem has never been the channel, but what we do with it. Communication is a message that passes between two people who are willing and able to interact. If it's a one-way street, there's already a problem.
The temptation is great to use every new feature by transposing your own tired practices. But please don't repeat the same mistakes without questioning them first.
A strategy without value and respect for its audience will only produce frustration and dissatisfaction.. It doesn't matter which channel.
And how are your chatbots doing?
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