While apartment hopping in my twenties, my parents often lectured me about the value of owning property versus renting. Why, they’d ask, was I paying someone else’s mortgage when I could be paying my own and building equity for the future? Of course, at that age, the benefit of owning in my eyes was really more about being in control – not being at the mercy of my landlord and being able to personalize the space to really make it my own.
These same principles about owning versus renting ring true in marketing technology as well – particularly when it comes to owning the customer relationship. You’ll hear many marketing experts like Marie Forleo advise small businesses on the importance of building a media list versus over-investing in social media. No matter what size organization, in today’s retail environment, we tend to put a lot of emphasis on engaging with customers and prospects on social media, and sometimes take our email list for granted.
But the key thing to remember, and the reason why Forleo and others put such a huge emphasis on email, is simply this: you own your customer relationships on email and you rent them on social media. When a channel is rented, like it is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the power lies within the hands of the platform itself as design or algorithms change, which they often do.
Coherent Path CEO James Glover dives into the renting versus owning debate further in his recent article, ‘Why Marketers Should Own, Not Rent.’ Check out Adweek to read more in the full article.