UK email marketing agency Jaymail have denied that ice cream brand Ben and Jerry’s decision to drop email marketing in favor of social media marketing signals the end of email marketing as we know it.
The news surfaced on Wednesday of last week, and sent waves of tweets around the internet. It emerged that Ben and Jerry’s were worried about the possible negative effects that their newsletter was having on their subscriber base, and had decided to focus on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to get their word out.
Jay Chambers, owner at Jaymail and a leading expert in the email marketing field, met the news with the following statement:
‘The strange news about Ben and Jerry’s dropping email marketing came as a shock, they are one of only a few big brands to have stopped email marketing altogether in the UK, and it will be interesting to see the effects this has on their bottom line. I won’t be surprised to see them looking to re-engage their email subscribers in the very near future’
• Jay Chambers, Jaymail Email Marketing Agency
Soon after, Ben and Jerry’s issued a response from PR Director, Sean Greenwood:
“In general, I think it’s a bit of a misunderstanding. The announcement came from our UK team, who was basically sharing that they planned to reach out to their fans via social media moving forward. I think they wanted to alleviate any fears from fans who previously received a newsletter style email to think that they had somehow fallen off the list. I believe they’re still keeping email as a venue for special events/opportunities as they mentioned they might still reach out via email.
Again, this was a note from our UK team. I believe the rest of the Ben & Jerry’s folks around the globe (including us here at the HQ in Vermont who support the U.S. and the globe) are planning to continue to use email, social media, text messaging, augmented reality, snail mail, vanilla guerrilla marketing, grassroots Social Mission endeavors, sky writers, deep-sea divers and of course… scoop trucks on the road.”
• Sean Greenwood, Ben & Jerry’s
This statement does help to clarify their position, which at first came across as a little naive. Email marketing has been studied extensively by the Direct Marketing Association, with results strengthening email marketing’s position as the top marketing method for ‘return on investment’. Such a hasty move could have frozen Ban and Jerry’s out of the market.
