Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

"The article is most likely an individual point of view from a hyper social media user," said Morgan Stewart, director of research and strategy at ExactTarget. Granted, he has a lot of stake in the success of email, but many others agreed with him.

"I don't think social media will take away from email efforts," added Julie Katz, a Forrester analyst. "In fact they will be used in conjunction. Social is not necessarily a threat to email." This was echoed by another Forrester analyst, David Daniels, who pointed out that you need an email address to sign up for a social media account, or register for just about any other online service.

He says that the industry has spent the last 10 years working to successfully identify users through email addresses and verification processes. Opt-in policies, Captcha tools, deliverability strategies, anti-spam legislation -- all of this has been done to keep email as a valid and identifiable communications channel. That isn't being considered within the social media space. For that reason alone, he says, email isn't going away any time soon.

In addition, the channel still works, and is relatively cheap compared to other communications platforms. Companies have realized that if done properly (with relevance and timeliness), email can be a very successful retention and relationship tool. "It's a more subtle and sophisticated channel than we think," said Dela Quist, of CEO of email consultancy Alchemy Worx.

This story from 1to1 Weekly delves deeper into the state of email marketing. Where do you think the industry stands, and where is it going?