Judy Loschen, VP-digital analytics, Aspen Marketing Services

“Social right now is the big shiny object; but, if you look at customer behaviors, the most engaged social users also are the highest engaged email users. The good thing about email is it's a push channel, offering the ability to get in front of customers to direct them to your website. So using the two channels together is where the market is going.”

Ryan Phelan, VP-strategic services, BlueHornet

“There has been a lot of discussion within the industry about how email is dead. But email is not dead. What we have seen is a switch to a "less is more' approach—the more engagement the better. Social, for example, is a very engaging medium, a conversation, and this is what email has always striven for. For b2b marketing specifically, conversation emails have a higher conversion rate than offers. What sells on the b2b side is the benefit statement.”

Dela Quist, CEO, Alchemy Worx

“Email is actually the engine that drives all e-commerce online. It's not sexy or exciting, but the fact is email is the cheapest way to get to market. I would say email volume has grown five or 10 times over in the last decade, and we're driving business with it. But email marketers are fretting, saying, "Why can't we be more like social?' But the job of email marketers will be the same: To get the recipient's permission to email him, and do a great job with your brand, creative, content and offers.”