I for one am going to watch this carefully. B&J has always been a counter-culture marketer. I agree email and social media work pretty well together but I guess what matters most is what metric they are measuring THEIR campaigns against.

I'll admit that I'm not the most versed in how well they have been leveraging and promoting their email marketing efforts. However, this really makes me question whether B&J had put much of an effort into email previously. I mean, for as many people use one form of social media or another, many more use email, and I would assume B&J's potential audience is larger among email users than it is among the smaller group of social media participants. Nonetheless, good on them for trying something different. I hope it goes well.

This is a very interesting move on their part. I for one have always hated having things "pushed" on me, even by companies I love. When I'm following somebody on facebook and twitter there is no reason they need to push solicitations to my in box. It makes me do work to NOT buy from them. ANNOYING. I've always been curious how many other consumers feel this way.

This is a good post as well. Interesting that they chose social media over email marketing. You'd think they'd use social media and email marketing hand in hand..go figure. Thanks for info

First, there is no way that ALL of their email subscribers didn't like their email or prefer to interact with B&J on Facebook. Excluding a major contact channel like this is short-sighted. Second, if their email wasn't working, they should have focused on improving their email content and its relevance and value to the consumer, not just abandon it. Finally, the comment "their Facebook and Twitter profiles are already delivering tremendous value to them" is unfounded. Where is the data? Who has proven the "value" Facebook and Twitter have driven for them? I'm guessing this is less of a dollar-driven decision and more of a gut-instinct or other decision by a senior marketing person.

I'm not terribly surprised, because really, how much content can you push in email about Ice Cream? 
 
some companies just don't have the content for a legitimately interesting email program. 
 
140 characters to everyone OR a complete content experience and personalized to the end-user 
 
there's a reason one method is cheaper than the other - it's the ability to customize, track and provide value to the best customers. 
 
one thing I wonder - unless their open rate is over 50% (which I'm sure it's not), does everyone on their email list know about this change?

Interesting move on their part. I, personally, would rather have them reach out to me through my social networks, as opposed to my overflowing inbox. 
 
 
 
I've never seen their emails, but I think this could work for them. 
 
 
 
Makes me want to see the data that they based their decision off of! I don't think they would take this step unless there was some convincing metrics behind it.

It is shocking, but it makes sense when you think about it. I imagine the target audience is younger. The age 25 and under demographic doesn't rely on email the way older generations do. They text and Facebook.

Well at least I still get my JP Licks Fix e-mail newsletter letting me know what the flavors of the month are.

At least with email marketing you have ownership of the email names. Who knows if these social media will be around - or in what form- a few years from now. Or what kinds of charges or policy changes they might have. 
 
I can see putting much more emphasis on social, I am doing so. But not at the expense of email. 
 
Imagine if I had put all my marketing emphasis on that social media powerhouse - MySpace??? 
 
Jeff

FYI - this is in the UK only! So much for clarity in media reporting.

Great move, and definitely I was expecting this move for quite sometime. I was observing email marketing very closely and all I can say it was getting less and less results every day. May be because more and more people hiring theri firewalls and not even opening emails with links; may be because socia media become more and more useful to engage, connect and share. Great post thank you brian

A smart marketer will never choose one channel and abandon the other.  
 
I agree with Ted above that B&J should have focused on improving their email content rather than trashing this channel completely. 
 
Also Jeff has a great point - with email marketing, you own the list. On social media, your brand is living under the "social media landlord's" roof. Why B&J put all their eggs in one basket befuddles me.

Anyone seen http://twitter.com/cherrygarcia/status/18551589239 ? It's only being dropped in the UK – US subscribers will still get the email. 
 
"Reports of ChunkMail's demise have been greatly exaggerated, we'll continue to send out flavorful email to our US fans. The UK's dropping it"

I don't think, for instance, Groupon is likely to drop email marketing anytime soon.

This is an interesting move on B&J's part, even if only in the UK for now. North America tends to follow UK and other Europeans trends... I would be surprised to see a lot of companies abandoning email marketing in the near future, but wouldn't be at all surprised to see a downward trend in its effectiveness and eventually in its use in the next couple of years. There's still much more innovating to be done with the web and social networks, remember that we're only seeing the first stages of changes from social technologies.

it's funny how people who clearly work in the social space love to speak on the death of email. 
 
some points to consider: 
-no one owns email; someone owns social media. 
 
-email is a universal protocol; social is different on every platform. 
 
-email allows for personalized messaging; social messaging goes to everyone (batch and blast, a la email 1999). 
 
some of the comments here are so lame. 

Very shortsighted.  
 
1) There are plenty of people NOT on social networks. And they eat ice cream. 
 
2) Facebook can, and does, change the rules of the game at will. They have wiped organizations and campaigns out, kaput, right off the service. Imagine all the equity invested - gone. 
 
We don't pay anything to use the service. Facebook owns the relationships. With e-mail, at least you owned the relationship. 
 
3) Good e-mail still works. Especially transactional e-mail. It's just that so many companies suck at it, but the good ones still experience good ROI. It's harder to do well nowadays with all the choices for communicating. 
 
4) Email is the glue for every social network for a reason - it's the one thing almost everyone online definitely has, and looks at, most every day.

What this decision says to me is that Ben & Jerry's is aware of their target audience and understand the best way to communicate with them.  
 
I think that this is a move that many companies couldn't pull off because their brand identity wouldn't allow it, but for Ben & Jerry's this just seems to fit my image of their brand.  
 
As Shanna Cramer pointed out, the younger demographics connect in different ways and they digest marketing and advertising campaigns in different ways.  
 
For Ben & Jerry's, which doesn't hit me as a brand with a traditional face, it smacks of common sense that they will go with a more cavalier approach to their marketing, targeting their audience in a different way, and giving their audience a chance to communicate more openly and freely with them.

This is an interesting move but one that I understand. Email marketing remains an effective way to build relationships, and for those in service industries it allows you to build credibility and trust through the delivery of useful content. However, you don't really need an email from a retailer or consumable goods company. We are changing the way we consume and interact with information and it is critical to understand those shifts to maintain and grow your customer base. Part of this may have been financially driven but I believe it was the right strategic move to make.

Seems like an odd abandon of strategy here given email CTR is so high using social the right way. Very odd to me. Missed opportunity if you ask me. 

I suppose you could have an opt-out campaign, but this is an incredibly elitist move. You poor e-mail people, we don't love you anymore.

Facebook is a huge application with a number of amazing uses that can be applied to business. Palo Alto has written a practical guide to how to safely allow Facebook to be used in the workplace while still protecting the security of your business. The white paper http://bit.ly/brno0T is really interesting and will allow you to understand that there is utility to Facebook and that it can be an excellent medium for business.

I agree with B&J and have been in this business for 10 years. I rec reading this. Consumers Connect Email and Social - 4 Deals and discounts rule the day for opt-in #email  
The truth is you engage your customers the way they want to be engaged is the point. The event in SF  
INTEGRATING EMAIL MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA Will be doing a deep dive on this top and how to make email/social work Message me if you want a discount code @infinigraph 
 
@chasemcmichael 
@infinigraph

I think this is a good move for them...email marketing is coming a bit out dated.

This is a great move for them. I never open or read anything email marketing related, so they are all wasting their time with me. And millions of others probably do what I do. If people need to buy something, they just Google it, get the info, and buy it. Email marketing I'm sure generates very little business. But I could be wrong. My business is shooting marketing videos for websites all over Florida. I rely on other ways to market my business. Great blog here. All the best.

C'mon HubSpot! You owe it to your readers and yourselves to do due diligence on this story and clarify that B&J's are not completely dropping email marketing!You've started up a bit of a tempest in a teapot here. 
 
Unfortunately, if you do correct this post, it won't get the tweets that the initial one got.

@Charles - you are wrong.  
 
Email generates more business online than any video, viral or other social campaigns. 
 
and for someone who never reads anything email marketing related, it's funny that you read this blog post.

After having read all the discussion thread thus far, I see that many of you posters are absolutely missing the point of email marketing. 
 
Specifically, many of you are confusing acquisition email (a.k.a. unsolicited email, spam, etc.) from retention email (a.k.a. opt-in email). 
 
For those of you who stated that you detest receiving emails from marketers, you never would have received any of the Ben & Jerry's emails in the first place. They do not SPAM. They only sent emails to those who specifically opt-in to receive them in the first place. 
 
I would be curious to know the specifics of B&J's email marketing program. Over-mailing a subscriber list is a typical practice that gets repeated. I encourage all you to take @chasemcmichael's offer seriously and learn about opt-in email. 
 
Will social replace email? For some yes; for others no. Social sites are all about one-to-many conversations. Email is a one-to-one conversation if done correctly. 
 
Don't worry; after a bit, there will be social media bad practices too.

Ben & Jerry’s responds to claims that they will drop email marketing: 
 
http://www.theemailguide.com/email-marketing/scoop-ben-jerry%e2%80%99s-responds-to-claims-that-they-will-drop-email-marketing/

Not surprised. I actually received their messages as an email marketing manager and was never impressed with their emails. I think this is a one-off thing for the email marketing industry and not a sign of the times.

Chris congrats on being a big shot and bragging to everyone. I'm sure you're a legend in some circles. And George I gave my opinion on this story. Nothing more, nothing less. And also George, I found this story on my home page, not an email. Maybe you can be a fortune teller someday since you know things before finding out specifics. I love people who think they are so superior. I Google, I read, and I learn. And I deal in facts. That's me. Good luck with life guys.

Thank you for the feedback, everyone... I have posted a correction above on the issue of the US vs UK branches of Ben & Jerry's.

Ben & Jerry are our favorite boyfriends... lol

Personally I agree with you that e-mail and social media compliment one another. This article prompted me to briefly consider how I prefer communications from brands and others. I tend to view e-mail as more trusted (or even intrusive) than RSS or social media. Therefore I reserve e-mail for the brands, blogs, companies, and individuals in which I have the most interest while the other forms are for lesser involvement.