Ben & Jerry UK stops the use of email marketing campaigns

We have just been notified by the  folks at theemailguide.com that Ben & Jerry will continue to use email marketing in the United States but the UK division of Ben & Jerry may continue to use email marketing. With this in mind, my views below are in regards to the UK division of Ben & Jerry and not the company as a whole.

The news on Ben & Jerry UK decision to stop the use of email marketing is and at the same time not surprising as many companies are looking for the latest marketing buzz to get the name of their product in front of customers.

While I can understand Ben & Jerry UK desire to be in front of people’s face on the most successful social media site (Facebook), Ben & Jerry UK decision to stop their email marketing campaigns is in my opinion a mistake.

Facebook is hot at the present time but what will the people on the internet be interested in 2 years from now? What will be the latest hottest social media site be then? Some people may say that Facebook is not going away and while that may be true (I also love Facebook) plenty of people said the same thing a few years back about MySpace. MySpace was HOT for a few years and then slowly faded away in popularity as Facebook took over.
My point is that instead of jumping ship and going to the latest popular trend, the marketing people at Ben & Jerry UK should focus on what works and what has great conversions as well as a proven track record in the marketing world.

I am not suggesting that social media should not be a big part of the global picture at Ben & Jerry UK or any other company’s marketing plans. In fact Ben & Jerry UK should be active on social media sites. What I am suggesting is that email marketing campaigns and social media campaigns should work hand in hand to bring Facebook fans and email subscribers together.

Email marketing can bring fans to Ben & Jerry UK Facebook fan page and Ben & Jerry UK Facebook fan page can bring fans into the email subscriber’s list. Utilizing the two marketing channels, Ben & Jerry UK team can get to as many internet citizens as possible.

It is my view that the marketing team at Ben & Jerry UK do not appreciate or understand it yet but email will still be a functional part of their Facebook campaigns. The reason is because every time content is added to Ben & Jerry UK Facebook fan page, an automated email will be sent to every one of Ben & Jerry UK Facebook fans in order to give them an update.

Ben & Jerry UK decided to stop retargeting their customers via direct email campaigns but they have not stopped using email per say. Ben & Jerry UK will continue to be using email throughout their social media campaigns to connect with their Facebook fans.

Ben & Jerry UK will on the other hand be losing a magnificent opportunity to segment their customers by the country, state/providence they live in or the local zip/postal code or even the client’s favorite ice cream flavors. This eventually leads to loss of engagement with customers and market share.

I also disagree with some that say Ben & Jerry UK doesn’t need to communicate every month to encourage a relationship with customers as the customers are already engaged or the fact that ice cream is not the kind of product that needs an email to encourage customers to purchase it. The reason I disagree is because when companies don’t engage on a regular basis with their customer they lose market share.  A few example of the many lost opportunity by Ben & Jerry UK when they are not going to be using direct email marketing to connect with their customers are:

1. Ben & Jerry UK will no longer be able to send email coupons to customers for their favorite ice cream when sales of that particular product are falling off in a certain region of the country.
2. Ben & Jerry UK will no longer be able to invite customers living in a certain location to an event that is being sponsored by Ben & Jerry UK to drive goodwill within that community. While they can send a message to everyone on Facebook does the guy in New York really need to know about an event that is being put together in Seattle? With email segmentation Ben & Jerry UK can target specific customers in a specific location around the country making the message more focused with less noise to everyone else.
3. In the Northeast we have recently had a heat wave that Ben & Jerry UK could have taken advantage of. They would have sent an email newsletter on the wonderful benefits of ice cream such as it having calcium for kids or ice cream recipes and included a coupon in the newsletter to encourage people to buy the product. Customers who never received an email may not thing about buying Ben & Jerry UK ice cream but when an email newsletter is sent it plants seeds and desire for a product.
4. Ben & Jerry UK will no longer be able to send an email to their client’s in order to wish them a happy birthday. Imagine how a customer would feel if they received an email newsletter and once the client opens the email they see an ice cream cake shaped message saying Happy Birthday. All Ben & Jerry UK have to do is collected that information through the website when customers sign up to receive the newsletter or on the retail side when a client visits the store.

Ben & Jerry UK is missing out on a huge marketing opportunity to deliver the right message to the right person in order to drive sales results.

Email marketing can do amazing things for your current and prospective customers if used correctly.

To get more information and ideas on how email marketing can bring your marketing plans to the next level and how it can help your business grow, contact me at email.marketing *-at-* marketing-with-email.com.