As you know, earlier this week eMarketer.com released a report that leaves no room for doubt: social media marketing and email marketing are no competitors but “friends”.
Many have claimed that with the increasing adoption of social media by people, email marketing would go through rough times, to say the least.
But as I wrote in previous posts, this is nonsense, spread by people that focus on marketing and communication channels, rather than on what really matters.
I am not the only one that has been shouting that social media and other marketing channels work together very well. Several ESPs, for instance, knew that the integration between email and social media was coming (read this excellent post for instance).
What really matters is that we live in a world where
customer-centricity is not a strategic choice but simply a must. If
businesses today don’t track the digital footprints of their customers
(sorry, Jim, that’s your line) and are there where their customers are,
they miss the point.
It is an illusion to think that we decide what platforms and channels we provide customers to get in touch with us. It’s the customer that chooses, so you better use the same channels he does.
Does that mean you have to be everywhere? Of course not. Read again: you have to be where your customers are. And that depends from many things such as your industry, the profile of your customers, etc.
It is amazing to see how long the debate about the ‘battle between social media and email marketing’ has been going on.
Amazing because it completely missed the point: marketing is a way of engaging customers and the way to do it is by having a holistic and integrated approach.
So it is really time that both email marketers and social media marketers stop this and finally see that the truth is not black and white.
Email marketing will not be killed by social media. And social media marketing will not be killed by the next ‘big thing’. What works, remains. What doesn’t work, fades away.
The only concern a marketer should have is if he is creating value for his (potential) customers and for his business.
All the rest is nonsense and theory. Social media marketing and email marketing are good friends and hopefully, we can finally end the debate and focus on best practices and ways to combine both as good as possible.
And the same goes for the impact of social media on all other forms of marketing. In case you missed today’s earlier post about the findings of the annual SEMPO survey, you can read it here.
And you can bet I will cover it more in detail too.
It’s time to move people. Let’s stop talking about hypes and start connecting with our customers in every single step of their life cycle.
Leave the rest to the gurus.
Join me in the Social Marketing Forum