Marketing Sherpa just posted a new report that stirred up old RSS vs Email debate again. http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2988

The report starts out by stating, “It chills our blood when we hear email marketers and publishers blithely state, “I’m thinking about switching over to RSS entirely!” Oh no. Please don’t. RSS is worthy of testing, but it’s not an email replacement and it never will be.”

A report in Jupitermedia titled “E-Mail Marketing: Alive and Well” notes, “RSS won't be immediately effective as an alternative to e-mail marketing. (But) for some companies (primarily publishers who cater to a technical audience), it's sensible to press forward with RSS now as a supplement to e-mail marketing.” http://www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/research:concept/1103/id=96103/

A lot of people think this debate has been going on for long enough. RSS is NOT a replacement for email. It does not (and may never) rival marketing reach and immediacy of an email message.

Those who’ve been mourning death of email marketing don’t seem to “get” fact that RSS hasn't reached tipping point yet. More people read email than RSS feeds – many more.

I believe that a smart publisher or marketer must use both - Email and RSS. Its not an either/or question.

I know for a fact that my blogs get read more when I send out an email with a “blog post roundup.” I personally prefer email and tend to read those blogs more frequently that use email notification.

But news is not all good for email marketing. According to DoubleClick, 64.7% of all legitimate email being sent (based on their own customers' stats) is never opened. Email delivery is cited as #1 email marketing headache.

The good news is that email marketing has a terrific Return on Investment (ROI) bringing in $15.50 per dollar spent on a campaign according a report in Email Sherpa. http://www.emailsherpa.com/emailblog.cfm?ID=360

That $15.50 per email-marketing dollar spent is roughly 17% more than in direct-mail campaigns and 73% more than telemarketing campaigns.

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