Every now and then, there is a discussion about where email stands as social network use becomes the "it" thing. We’ve all heard mutterings like, "email is dead" and "social media is killing email," but it’s just not the case, and there are plenty of reasons why (even if Google thinks it’s time to start over).

Do you think email is on the way out? Share your thoughts.

Last year, we ran a piece titled 10 Reasons Social Media isnt’ Replacing Email that got a pretty good response from readers. In a nutshell (read the article for elaboration), these ten reasons were:

1. People still send hand-written letters
2. Nearly all sites on the web that require registration require an email address
3. Email notifies you of updates from all social networks
4. We haven’t seen any evidence yet that Google Wave really is the next big thing
5. Email is universal, and social networks are not
6. There are plenty of people who have no interest in joining social networks, but already use email
7. Email is still improving
8. Even social networks themselves recognize the importance of email
9. More social media use means more email use
10. As far as marketing is concerned, email is doing pretty well

At the Online Marketing Summit last week, there was an interesting session about email marketing, led by Joel Book, Director of eMarketing Education for email marketing firm ExactTarget. In that session among other points of discussion, he provided the following concept equations:

Email + CRM = lead nurturing
Email + CRM = Reseller education
Email + CRM = trade show follow up
Email + CRM = sales support for dealers
Email + analytics = Personalized recommendations
Email + analytics = live offers
Email + retail = product education
Email + retail = scannable coupons
Email + retail = subscriber acquisition
Email + social = driving demand
Email + social = using social forward to expand customer database
Email + sms = mobile immediacy
Email + SMS = lead generation
Email + sms = subscriber acquisition

Some things to think about.

Also at the Online Marketing Summit, WebProNews discussed the integration of social media with email, with Kara Trivunovic, Sr. Director of Strategic Services at StrongMail, who makes some great points.

Businesses are plugging in social aspects into email programs to not only expand the reach of their existing offers, but to turn customers into evangelists, and ultimately grow their databases, as she says. Keep in mind that about half of all content is shared through email, and social media can make for a great way to gain subscribers. According to Trivunovic, there are 3 major ways that people integrate social into their email programs:

1. Share with your network

2. Leverage as a medium to incentivize current customer base to evangelize on their behalf, and drive additional subscribers or awareness

3. Business model: acquiring customers through referrals

This article could go on for a long time, but let me just conclude with a few more points. Mobile apps will continue to keep email relevant in the mobile world (Google just acquired a popular one). Google recently released its own social media product, Buzz, which the company decided would fit best right in Gmail. Microsoft Outlook only recently started integrating social networks into the inbox (Mozilla has Raindrop to serve a similar purpose). The social networks themselves are creating email services (it didn’t take MySpace long to get a lot of users for theirs, and Facebook is said to be working on its own…and we know how popular Facebook is [it recently surpassed Yahoo as the number 2 site on the web]).

Tell us why you think email is here to stay or why you think it’s not.

Email Marketing Email selling is the ‘it’ term in the world of net and web business. Countless firms are using HTML e-mail marketing to the best of their advantage. Put in easy words, email marketing can be described as reaching out to the customers thru e-mail.

Newsletters is the most generally used tool in the field of internet marketing. Virtually, each company in the present day scenario seems to be using these newsletters to their advantage. Though each company uses this web marketing tool, there are only a select few who are able to have their audiences hooked to their newsletter.

Small and medium-sized business (SMB) marketers are becoming increasingly convinced of the positive results of video email, social media and personalization, according to a new report from GetResponse.

Over 80 percent of respondents plan to use video emails in 2010 and over 90 percent of SMB marketers who use video emails report it delivers significant conversion rates.

More than half of respondents said video emails can increase click-through rates. One in three marketers believes video can improve brand image and increase customer loyalty. Over 20 percent of marketers believe that video emails can also reduce support and training costs. Only 4.7 percent of email marketers do no see any benefits from using video email.

"Today’s marketers are mindful of the importance of delivering relevant content and one-to-one messaging based on preferences and behaviors," said Simon Grabowski, founder of

GetResponse

.

"It’s all about putting the ‘human element’ back into marketing through the use of video and social media conversations."

Other highlights from the survey include:

•   Social media: A 113.2 percent increase in use of links to new messages on social media pages; a 109.1 percent increase in use of sign-up forms on Facebook, etc. fan pages; 88.8 percent will increase share options and 71.6 percent  more will place "follow us" links in email messages.
•   Personalization: 53.80 percent of SMB respondents said they intend to increase targeting and personalization in 2010; 52.40 percent will try to improve email title and subject line personalization.
•   Behavioral targeting: Nearly 75 percent of marketers claim that behavioral targeting can result in significant or moderate increases in email marketing effectiveness. Only 2.8 percent did not consider behavioral targeting an effective practice.

You finally notice that you just need a great decide-in list. After reading numerous articles and sought expert advices and have learn many success tales of individuals making a small fortune with decide-in lists you lastly resolve to have considered one of your own. Then it happens, you assume you’ve known all the things there is to learn about opt-in lists and have adopted their advices to the T and you continue to werent able to make a profit.

You finally realize that you just want a good opt-in list. After reading countless articles and sought skilled advices and have read many success stories of people creating a small fortune with choose-in lists you lastly resolve to have certainly one of your own. Then it occurs, you think you’ve got recognized every little thing there may be to learn about choose-in lists and have adopted their advices to the T and you continue to werent able to make a profit.

Bulk e-mail lists may look tempting, but they are definitely far more trouble than they are worth. There are far better ways to build your list.

List building is an essential element for any business marketing on the internet that wants to grow and quickly.
A key component of your list building efforts is the squeeze page and the more effective this page is the bigger your list will be.
Read more to discover the 3 most critical areas of your squeeze page and how to structure them to make your page more effective.

It is a fair assumption that you will already have a website and are considering whether the extra bother of email marketing is for you. However, the two forms of digital presence are worlds apart.

Learn how to Create a Squeeze Page that will blow your Local Competition out of the water. Develop Squeeze Pages that get results.

Discover the powerful secret to increasing your profits to a level which can fund your internet lifestyle by building relationships with your prospects through the internets most powerful marketing tool email!

Rental insurance is a critical safeguard if you’ve decided to rent your property. Take time to due adequate research, or even consider outsourcing to a property management company.

As reliable and useful a marketing tool as email’s proven to be in the past, it’ll be better than ever in the future, according to one expert.  The Director of eMarketing Education at ExactTarget explained during a session at OMS how things are changing and how marketers can continue to use email to their advantage.

(Coverage of the Online Marketing Summit 2010 continues at WebProNews Videos.  Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)

Joel Book stated that 40 percent of the cell phones in use will be smart phones by 2014.  All marketers need to test their emails for compatibility with mobile formats, then, and retail marketers should think about issuing mobile coupons.

Next, he discussed the concept of creating and cultivating brand advocates using email.  Brand awareness is vital, after all, and Book indicated that 50 percent of all shared content is shared via email.  This means that the social sharing can be a great way of attracting new subscribers.

Indeed, Book said email has far surpassed direct mail as the highest-producing tactic for reaching customers and converting buyers.  And here’s an interesting tidbit: sending emails from a person, as opposed to generic email address, can increase open rates by as much as 18 percent.

Finally, marketers must look at meshing email with other tactics.  Use email and CRM for lead nurturing, reseller education, trade show follow-ups, and sales support for dealers, for example.  Email and analytics can be used to make personalized recommendations and live offers.  Email and SMS, meanwhile, can help with mobile immediacy, lead generation, and subscriber acquisition.

Email Marketing has come a long way since its introduction in the late nineties. Once the effectiveness of emailing customers was as disputed as social media marketing is now.

Email marketing is a great way to generate interest in your product, a targeted email marketing strategy will help you to save extra expenses and make a mailing list that is more clients centric.