Credit: NBC

Direct Marketing News covered Brian Solis’ empowering keynote at the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Evolution Conference in Miami, “We Need More Cowbell, Not More Email.”

You know that classic Saturday Night Live “Cowbell” sketch? The one where Christopher Walken plays a music producer and tells big-bellied Will Ferrell that his band’s song needs more cowbell. As the skit goes on, and as Jimmy Fallon continues to lose his composure, Ferrell beefs up the bell. And the more he bangs on the bell, the more Walken loves the song.

Often, email marketers sing the same tune: The more email they send, the more likely they are to engage subscribers. In fact, marketers send so much email that the average worker receives 11,680 emails per year, Barry Gill, enterprise consultant and product marketing manager for Mimecast writes in the Harvard Business Review. But Brian Solis, principal analyst for Altimeter Group and author of the book The End of Business as Usual, says that more isn’t always better.

“The answer isn’t more email—maybe more cowbell, but not email,” he told the audience during his keynote. “The answer is spending more time thinking like a human being again.”

Read the entire summary at DMN.