Email isn’t over
It’s easy to think that social media has eclipsed email as the new must-have advertising channel. It’s what everyone is talking about these days, while email is so over.
Not so. A recent survey from eConsultancy showed 42% of US consumers saying they prefer to get ads for sales and offers via email, compared with only 3% who preferred social media.
The reality, as Steve Rubel argues, is the same as it has always been, that marketing channels work best when they are used in combination, and that applies as much to email and social media as to anything else.
‘Quietly and steadily,’ Rubel says, ‘email marketing is evolving and turning more social, thanks to a blitz of homegrown innovations, acquisitions and start-ups that are reinventing the platform. Many companies are building end-to-end “social CRM” tools that will help marketers manage their relationships by mashing up existing customer touch points and social-networking sites.’
Rubel goes on to identify some of the key players in this space, such as Constant Contact, Rapportive and MailChimp. See his piece here.
