Is Social Media Replacing Email Marketing?
The big buzz is that Ben and Jerry’s is no longer going to be doing email marketing. Instead, they plan to connect with their customers exclusively through social media. This could send shivers down the spine of email-marketing companies who get paid by the number of emails that are sent out monthly by their customers. But will email marketing really become a thing of the past? Or will a “social-media only” policy only work for certain companies and businesses?
Ben and Jerry’s have always been counterculture in their approach to business. And perhaps their customers are more forward thinking and technical savvy than most. But maybe it’s just the way things are going and email marketing will become a dinosaur.
It really will depend on what customers want and it may differ from business to business. One thing is certain, business has become very customer driven-with new technologies leading the way to more interaction and customer involvement.
And Ben and Jerry’s customers have spoken. According to an article on Hubspot by Brian Whalley “Ben & Jerry’s customers had indicated that they disliked the email despite loving the brand, which means that it wasn’t building the positive relationship that the famously brand-conscious ice cream company wanted.”
So the question is: How do YOUR customers want to interact with you? And what can you do to make the experience as enjoyable as possible for your customers on an ongoing basis?
Only time will tell if social media will actually replace email marketing. But what it shows is that 1. you MUST listen to your subscribers and customers and give them the experience THEY want and 2. if you aren’t including social media in your marketing mix, it’s not too late to get into the game but you need to get started NOW!
Ellen Violette, The eBook Coach, is the creator of the Quick-Start 3-Day eBook Authoring Workshop, How To Turn Articles Into An Outrageously Profitable eBook Workshop. eBook Profit Marketing Secrets, Accelerated Wealth Blueprint, the Virtual eBook Expo, and eBook Empire Builders.
She’s also an author herself, including co-writing Sell More eBooks, Low & No-Cost Tactics To Explode Your Sales & Downloads with Internet Expert, Jim Edwards, The eBook Journal For Authoring Success, The Moving Cure: How To Organize Your Move To Save Time, Money & Your Sanity, and her soon to be released ebook: The 1-eBook Solution: The 12 Secrets To Turning A Single eBook Into A 6-Figure Income.
Ellen’s mission is to turn www.theebookcoach.com into THE destination site for authors online. She is adding social media services for authors and coaches to the wide array of programs and services that The eBook Coach offers very soon so stay tuned!
July 16th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Social media is nice, but I don’t think it will replace email for most small business people. The reason being: you don’t own your customer list on Facebook; Facebook owns your customer list. If you can’t download the contact information for all your customers and prospects onto a spreadsheet, put it on a memory stick and wear it around your neck, it’s not yours. Remember what happened to all the ebook sellers on eBay when eBay decided they didn’t want to allow digital product sales any more? They lost their businesses overnight. Facebook could change any or all of their policies arbitrarily, regarding how many friends you can have (they’ve already done so), how many fans you can have on your fan page, etc. You really don’t own your customer data there. What does a person do when they sign up for Facebook? They give Facebook their email address. The email address is the customer’s contact info, not their facebook account. Facebook creates a “middle man” between you and your customer data. I don’t like the look of that….
July 17th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Thank you for sharing this news Ellen.
As I see it, what’s happening is the lines between forms of communication are blurring. It’s not so much a choice between social media or email…. It is that social media and email (and other modes of communication) are blending.
We now can get “facebook emails” and “direct messages on twitter.” These are similar to email, even though they don’t require giving out our email addresses.
What has happened is that Ben and Jerry’s is listening to their customers AND creating a tighter knit bond amongst customers. It is of course nice to get an exclusive offer or a coupon by email. However, exclusive offers that are sent out to a COMMUNITY create better feelings than exclusive offers sent out to individuals. The good feelings are contagious!
I recently heard that there is such a thing as “like only content” on facebook. In other words, once people “like” a page than they become privy to certain videos or certain content that “non-likers” cannot see. I am not sure how to do this yet…. but it is brilliant.
Like-only content brings cohesiveness to customers and THAT is something email marketing does not do. I think Ben and Jerry’s realizes the power of creating a stronger bond between customers. That’s what they’re focusing on.
Social media creates loyal customers that function as a unit. They make purchasing decisions together (based on each other’s reviews/comments) and they spark changes together (based on feedback/complaints they give to the business.) This is where the trend is moving.
Will social media totally replace email marketing???
It just might!
~Michael
July 18th, 2010 at 6:01 am
Hello Ellen,
Thank you for writing such an insightful Article! The answer to you question is very simple…YES! Social Media is replacing E-mail marketing.
Just as E-mail marketing, has replaced Direct Mail Marketing..Social Media has changed the face of marketing, communication, and interaction all together. It’s the ‘new’ thing.
While, it may be true, that — you, can’t have a Social Networking site without an e-mail address, and splash/squeeze pages offers includes e-mail submission for people to receive their ‘free’ products; the fact remains — that Social Media is the quickest, fastest, and most efficient form of reaching the masses.
400 million Facebook users, can’t be wrong. LinkedIn has the largest professional network on the planet! YouTube has an average of 300,000 views a day! My point is, if you desire to market anything - location and convenience are key. And where are people? On some sort of social networking site.
People, go to social networks to meet up and chat with friends…not to necessarily be marketed to. Why, check emails, when their friends are on Facebook, and Twitter? The ‘FIRST’ place people go to now is their social networking accounts. So it just makes sense, to go where people already are. Social Media, has given us the luxury of placing all our needs at the click of a mouse.
Autoresponders, such as Constant Contact, and Aweber…will soon be a thing of the past, if they don’t adapt to this ‘new’ way of socializing and communicating. Why would people, be ‘inconvenienced’ by switching browsers just to check their emails or buy another app for their iphone, just to view emails — when they can connect with friends, family, and colleagues on Social Media.
All that is just a $10.00 way of saying…people are using Social Networks more and more…while using e-mails less and less. If other companies don’t jump on the bandwagon, the will be left in the dust. While companies like Ben & Jerry’s will continue flourish! It’s not word of mouth, anymore, it’s word of mouse! ….and social media is the next income revolution! Just look at the numbers, and we all know that - NUMBERS DON’T LIE!
Dwayne Neal - for The New Social Dynamic!
“Knowledge is Power, but ACTION is King!”
http://www.NewSocialDynamic.com
July 20th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I don’t think social media will totally replace email marketing. I do think that potential clients pay more attention to what you say on social media networks than they do to what you email them. It seems as though every time I send an email message, I lose a subscriber. On the other hand, my social media friends don’t seem to be that fickle. I can sell stuff all day long (of course I don’t do that) and my social media friends wouldn’t unfollow me because they know that’s what I do. Like you said, it’s all about listening to your subscribers. I don’t intend to stop building an email list any time soon, but I am focusing more attention on social media since that is what is bringing in the results. I hope that wasn’t too wordy for you. I can never shut up about social media…
Have a good day!
July 22nd, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Great post, Ellen. I just read an article today about Rachael Ray’s empire, and one comment stood out to me. One of the biggie newsmagazines (I don’t remember if it was Time or Newsweek) said that Ray had made herself the most accessible and most down-to-earth celebrity in the world.
Social networking makes us readily accessible to all our clients, it creates a conversation between us, rather than a one-sided pitch that e-mail marketing tends to do. I also think social networking helps clients learn to trust us. They can observe from afar our interactions with others before ever engaging us and decide whether we are worthy of their business.
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Thinking about your question if email marketing is being replaced by Social Media I feel the answer is, it will always depend on your customer base. I think the worse thing you could do is to run off and start doing something new just because it you think everyone else is doing it, so must the thing to do. If your customers are not the type who are on Facebook or MySpace or even know what that is, it would be the biggest mistake to tell them you are giving up email marketing for your fan page.
Why try to fix something that isn’t broken so to speak, just because you are hearing all these great things about Social Media. Everything has it place in marketing, if you only do one such as email marketing there is no harm in testing to see if your customer base would be even interested. Some markets are not meant for Social Media because of the subject or products, but all markets are meant for email marketing.
Its been around the longest and still works. Ask your customers before really jumping on the Social Media band wagon.
Kim Snyder
Overall Beauty
Overallbeauty.com
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:19 am
I definitely agree with your two conclusions. As Marlon Sanders says in his “New Marketing Rules for 2010,” marketing is all about providing a superior experience. Email is fast becoming just too limited as an experience.
Speaking personally, as a relative newb to internet business, social media is more appealing than email for two reasons. First, the barriers to entry are lower. I can start without a list. In fact, social media will help me build my list. I’m already on Facebook, so if I start a new business, all I need is a new Fan Page. I network it to my new blog and I’m set. No aweber-type system to learn and no aweber fees.
Second, I can get closer to my customers, faster. Social media is about building relationships. Customers buy from people they know and like. It’s not so different from the business model I used in my former brick-and-mortar store where I knew most of my regular customers by name. People like to be able to say they know the owner. Plus, social media makes it easy to gather quick feedback from customers, which then allows me to develop targeted products I know my customers want.
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Hi Ellen, I have been following you with keen interest. I have opted into your list, read many of your articles, printed out some to read and mark up better as I am on a mission to learn how to write an e-book. And the funny thing is - you didn’t even know about this new fan you have in me.
Social media allows a person to get to know another person kind of “from afar.” Accessability is made possible because of the way social media works. Just think of it: it is something to think that so many people have the opportunity to pop into hundreds of people’s living rooms/office for a 30 second comment and pop back out again. That is what facebook and twitter do.
I don’t really think that social media will totally replace email because you CAN get back and forth and very personal interaction going on email. BUT you can also get people never even opening your email and you might not ever know that. Emails can also feel like a “demand” response and that is not a good feeling. Social media interaction is more pallatible. And it is super easy to “like” a facebook post which essentially says “Hey - I read this and am thinking of you” - something that email has no equivalent to.
That’s my two cents. Thanks for the contest. I do hope I win because I really need your help.
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:29 pm
HI Amy,
Nice to meet you! Unfortunately the contest ended last night. But thank you so much for your comments.
How can I help you?
August 12th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Email marketing is quite effective in lead generation. i made a couple of affiliate sales by email marketing alone;~`
August 19th, 2010 at 3:42 am
I just wanted to comment your blog and say that I really enjoyed reading your blog post here. It was very informative and I also digg the way you write! Keep it up and I¡¯ll be back to read more in the future¡
August 23rd, 2010 at 3:31 pm
my God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insight at the end there, not leave it with ‘we leave it to you to decide’.
September 5th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Yes, you can ask here.
September 5th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Not really. It’s a Wordpress theme.
September 5th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Join eBook Empire Builders, http://www.ebookempirebuilders.com we do social media trainings in the membership.
September 29th, 2010 at 12:33 am
Interesting.
December 7th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
You can definitely see your expertise in the work you write. The world hopes for even more passionate writers like you who aren’t afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart.