Should You Ditch Email Marketing?

Recently, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream decided to drop their email marketing campaign in favor of social media marketing via Facebook and Twitter. You can read an informative article about this, here.

So, since B&J did it, you should too, right?

Hold on, Hoss! Not so fast.

Apparently, B&J's customers indicated to the company that they didn't like email marketing and preferred social media instead. I can see why. Despite the double opt-in thingy, email is still somewhat intrusive. Every few weeks, I go through my InBox and clean out subscriptions to stuff that I don't really want anymore. You can quickly clog your InBox with junk, making the important emails difficult to see. (I have several email addresses for this very problem, but it's still a headache.)

I never subscribed to B&J's email list, but I can imagine a scenario where I might have wanted a coupon or something for a container of Chubby Hubby (or whatever), but now I'm just tired of all the other emails for things I'm not interested in.

Like Internet marketing in general, at least when done properly, social media like Facebook puts the power in the customer's hands, not in the company's hands. So, I can certainly understand B&J's customers opting for Facebook and Twitter, rather than email.

Is this a trend?

I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up as a trend in online marketing, but right now, I don't think you should ditch your email marketing efforts for social media. Like B&J, you'll be smarter if you let your customers make that decision for you.