I was reading an excellent post over on the Copyblogger blog called "Why Email Marketing is Dead (And How to Bring it Back to Life)" and I wanted to share some great quotes from the article with you:

Why you don’t want to give up on email 
 For awhile, it looked like email was old-fashioned anyway. RSS was where it was at. We were going to create amazing connections with our blogs. Not only could we have terrific conversations, but our content was linkable, findable via search engines, and part of a global dialogue. Who needs boring old email? 

But here’s the secret that smart online marketers know: When you want to move from conversation to commerce, email just works better. 

Email lists are more responsive than RSS subscribers. They’re more engaged. They’re less likely to drift away and forget you. And they’re more profitable. 

Email is a more intimate medium than RSS. If RSS is a networking event, permission-based email is a dinner party. (As opposed to mailing to an email list you purchased, which is some jackass cold-calling you to sell life insurance during your dinner party. Don’t do that.) 

The Direct Marketing Association consistently reports that the ROI on email marketing remains far above that of search or other marketing channels. That’s in line with what I see and hear in online business.  And guess what? Smarter email marketing = better results.

This is just a snippet from the post on Copyblogger. I highly recommend the entire blog post.! It's really good stuff!