• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 26, 2012

In the opening keynote at the MediaPost Email Insider Summit Thursday, Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. digital marketing lead Kip Edwardson said "when you can impact consumers in the way that they can do the marketing for you" -- whether posting photos or other involvement -- that's immensely powerful. Certainly, in the case of Scotts, there is ample opportunity with people posting photos of pristine lawns.

Edwardson challenged the continuing perception that email marketers sort of spray and pray: "Email marketers don't blast anything, I can't stand it when people in our company come to us and say, 'When is our next email blast?'"

He said texting will become even more imptortant as a marketing tool as cost barriers to mobile phones and costs for data plans become more afforable.

For now, email is the preferred channel for "permission-based messages." 

Moving to social media, he said Facebook is evolving just as email did with scams and privacy violations spreading. He also questioned the benefits of marketers saying at once "Like us on Facebook and Follow Us On Twitter."

"Hey, find us all at once," he wagged. "Isn't that what stalkers do?"