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There was much chatter among email marketers last week as Ben and Jerry's announced that it was shelving its email newsletter in the UK in favor of social media as a primary channel of communication. The social media purists cheered, saying "I told you so" to the dinosaurs known in their circles as email marketers. The dinosaurs (email marketers) are wondering what in the heck Ben and Jerry's is thinking by shutting off a channel that almost every statistic still says is the preferred method of consumer communication with a brand.

Is Ben and Jerry's move marketing communications brilliance, foreshadowing the demise of email marketing, or is it a foolish over-investment in an unproven channel? I would pose this question: why does it have to be either?

Let the Consumer Chose the Flavor
Last week's announcement stated that Ben and Jerry's "abandoned their email newsletter program in response to feedback from their customers." As email marketers, we have been preaching preference management for years. Preference centers have done a tremendous job helping brands create more relevant communications for subscribers. These preference controls often give consumers the ability to participate in specific communications, request specific content or choose communication channels. So, what if the Ben and Jerry's customer base actually opted for communications via social media and not email? Is this such a bad thing? Does this mean email is dead? Of course not. All it means is that a segment of customers at a given point in time would like to engage with Ben and Jerry's via social channels.

That said, I doubt that 100% of the subscriber base preferred social over email. The wholesale shift from email to social channels could have been driven by resource constraints or a desire to drive media coverage (which worked) for the brand. I think we all need to continue the work email marketers began years ago, allowing customers to give a brand permission to engage them, allow consumers to specify the content and purpose of that engagement and make the communication between brand and customer as relevant as possible.

Freezer Burn
Ever go into the freezer for a pint of Ben and Jerry's only to find freezer burn has ruined your treat? You simply left the ice cream in the freezer too long, untended, uncared for and it went bad. Unfortunately, this happens to email communications all the time. Brands simply do not have the time or resources to keep content fresh. The result is a disengaged subscriber base, lower open, click and engagement rates and eventually an increase in unsubscribes and opt-outs.

As we work with brands in email and social media, one of the greatest opportunities is to leverage emerging channels (Facebook, Twitter, communities) to engage customers who have become disengaged or unresponsive in other channels. Many email marketers have seen click through rates (the true measure of program engagement) drop significantly. Using tools such as Rapleaf, brands can identify subscribers that are non-responders in email yet active on the social web. Once identified, brands can seek to engage these consumers through social channels, increasing overall engagement.

The issue is, if your content is not anticipated and appreciated, it does not matter what channel you leverage for communication, the result will be the same: customers opting out of communications. My point is this - maybe the Ben and Jerry's move was driven by the lack of anticipated and appreciated content in their email newsletter, not the channel itself.

It's the Ice Cream the Consumers Care about, Not the Bowl
Marketers are continually looking at new ways to engage their audiences. Much like Ben and Jerry's, who focuses on developing exciting new flavors that excite their customers' taste buds, marketers are developing new programs that enrich the overall experience between the brand and the consumer. Walk into any ice cream shop and you can choose a sugar cone, safety cone, waffle cone, chocolate covered waffle cone or just a plain old "cup." These "cones" are used to deliver the content, in this case ice cream. A simple cup adds little to the value of the content, where the chocolate-dipped waffle cone adds to the eating experience. Regardless of the delivery vehicle of choice (cup, cone, etc.), the focus is on the ice cream.

As interactive marketers, we need to focus first on the content and then on the delivery channel. The content is the nuts and bolts of what makes our relationship with our customers meaningful. It is driven by data and stored in CRM, loyalty or ecommerce systems. Part of this data should inform the marketer as to how individual customers want to be engaged. Do they prefer to engage via email, social media, postal mail, smoke signals, etc.? Used correctly, this subscription preference data becomes more than just delivery channel information; it allows the brand to add to the value of an overall engagement strategy, much like (at least for me) the chocolate-dipped cone adds to the ice cream.

At the end of the day, as marketers, we should support the customer's preference for communication channel selection and should congratulate Ben and Jerry's for doing just that. As business people, we should question the decision to eliminate the email delivery option for the UK newsletter altogether. After all, I would be plenty upset if I could not get my Chunky Monkey in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone.