*Originally posted: Jul 19, 2010 @ 14:03
I scream! You scream! We all scream for clarity!
One email, a blog post from HubSpot and hundreds and hundreds of tweets later and it seems few people bothered to actually ask Ben & Jerry’s what their actual plan regarding email marketing was…until now.
What an amazing concept, drop the PR people @ Ben & Jerry’s an email and ask them! Isn’t email just the most amazing information tool ever?
Here’s the reply from their PR Director, Sean Greenwood, which should clear up the massive confusion which has arisen since HubSpot first posted about this whole thing:
“In general, I think it’s a bit of a misunderstanding. The announcement came from our UK team, who was basically sharing that they planned to reach out to their fans via social media moving forward. I think they wanted to alleviate any fears from fans who previously received a newsletter style email to think that they had somehow fallen off the list. I believe they’re still keeping email as a venue for special events/opportunities as they mentioned they might still reach out via email.
Again, this was a note from our UK team. I believe the rest of the Ben & Jerry’s folks around the globe (including us here at the HQ in Vermont who support the U.S. and the globe) are planning to continue to use: email, social media, text messaging, augmented reality, snail mail, vanilla guerrilla marketing, grassroots Social Mission endeavors, sky writers, deep-sea divers and of course… scoop trucks on the road.”
– Sean Greenwood, Ben & Jerry’s
So, according to Sean, the email that so many people seized on as proof that Ben & Jerry’s was dropping email marketing was actually a proactive move on their U.K. group’s part to reassure their subscribers (who obviously want to communicate with Ben & Jerry’s) that they hadn’t been removed from their subscriber list!
Here’s the original Ben & Jerry’s U.K. email which started the whole thing! (Thanks to Laura Dinneen!)
The discussion this past week via email, blogs and Twitter has been more political than practical. Fueled almost entirely by at best wishful thinking and even, personal agendas. Keep this in mind the next time you see some tweet or blog post predicting the imminent death of something. That way we can all avoid brain freeze.
Oh and don’t forget to sign up for the Ben & Jerry’s email newsletter here!
Just to show their love for email, Ben & Jerry’s is giving us some free pint coupons to give away! Just leave a comment about what flavour you like best and why and we’ll pick some of the best and send the author a fee pint coupon!
Bonus points to those commenting who also tweet this story using the auto-tweetme link!
Now that’s cool!
Takeaway: Don’t believe everything you read with out doing some homework.
