The “death of email” fad is over a decade old. It is wrong. Email is still key to marketing and communications (marcom).
“Death of email” supposes people move to other platforms. The “other platforms” part isn’t wrong. Social media platforms barely existed a decade ago, and now they are widely used. The “move” part is what’s wrong.
Email is effective
Email’s first strength: it reaches more people than any other platform.
If you search on this, two facts emerge:
- Email is by far the #1 tool, measured by percent of people using it.
- The pandemic has significantly increased email utilization.
Effective email communications should be a marcom starting point.
Other platforms
Email’s other strength: it’s a single platform.
Think about social media: some are on Facebook, some are on Twitter, some are on Instagram, some are on other platforms. Effective marcom on social media requires you to cross-post to several platforms. That’s a chore!
Other platforms can be secondary
For all important communications, email should be primary. That means what you need to communicate, or a link to this information, must be in an email. Other platforms must be secondary.
Want to also convey information over Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.? Go for it! Just be consistent and thorough with what you do. If a social media platform’s users become satisfied with communications over it, they may pay less attention to emails.
Exceptions
Targeted or non-important communications? Do what makes most sense. A geofenced communication to find prospects may make sense exclusively on social media.
What about communities that are simply part of a social-media platform, such as Facebook groups? In that case, using social media as the primary or even exclusive communications tools could make sense.
Finally, your organization may have a practice of using selected platforms for communications. For communicating with affiliates, exclusive use of the selected platforms could be fine. This assumes enough of your affiliates are willing to watch for information on that platform.
Summary
Email is the dominant communication platform. Allegations of change have been hoaxes.
For typical marketing and communications, email-first should be the rule. If it’s important, it must be in an email. Other platforms are generally best for complementing emails.
