Email or social media?
Many have asked me which is better…
Which should they use for their business?
My answer?
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Use both.
Both are good options. But in my personal opinion, email marketing is especially awesome.
I’m not saying social media marketing is bad. It’s great, and you should definitely use it.
But between the two, email marketing far surpasses that of social media in terms of efficiency and returns.
Here are 5 reasons why:
1. Numbers Don’t Lie.
We all know that social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and the like have taken over the Internet.
But there are still more people with email accounts than there are people with social networking accounts.
In fact there are over 3 times as many email accounts than Facebook plus Twitter accounts added together.
i.e. EMAIL ACCOUNTS > (FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS + TWITTER ACCOUNTS) x 3
There are also more emails sent out each day than there are Tweets or Facebook posts.
2. Quality, Not Just Quantity
Not only does email generate more traffic than Facebook and Twitter, it also has higher quality of traffic.
Because your emailing your list of subscribers who have willingly signed up for your newsletter to find out about your offers.
With social media, there’s a lot of noise.
And your status update, tweet or post can get lost and never seen by your audience.
With email, you message goes directly to their inbox and thus is instantly more personal.
It feels like a one-on-one conversation, rather than a broadcast.
People always respond better (and conversions have proved this), the more personalized your message is.
Even you have probably typed out “Email me please” into a Facebook chat window before, so you should know what I’m talking about. When it comes to communication, email still comes before social media.
3. Database
When it comes to marketing, your database is likely to be better coming from email.
You might have a database of social media followers, but in the event that the social networking site changes its terms of service, you stand to lose all your followers. Your connection with your database would be gone, just like that.
Remember MySpace? Or Friendster..?
But you won’t lose email addresses.
In this situation, an email database is more permanent and reliable.
Also, email offers are more targeted, because people subscribe to them – like subscribing to magazine, you know they are looking for information they are interested in. Which in this case is whatever you’re providing.
4. More Transactions
People are already used to the idea of receiving offers via email.
Social media users are there to chat with their friends and family, play games, and browse the happenings on their newsfeed.
No one logs on to Facebook to buy something…
And even if they see offers there, they’re likely to be cautious in case of scams.
With email, they’re expecting to see offers… so they’re in a more tolerant, accepting frame of mind.
In short, with email, they’ll be more likely to buy.
5. Email gets more attention
You’re more likely to attract your customers’ attention if you use email.
Not necessarily because they prefer it to Facebook or Google Plus, either.
It’s because with email you can make invasive, repeated contact directly to their email inbox.
And it’s different from sending a Tweet or a Facebook message. They may not see it, and it could easily get lost among the rest of the posts and Tweets on their newsfeed or page.
But even if their inbox is the messiest one in the world, your email will wait there patiently until they decide to give it their attention.
And if your email has value your subscribers will start to look forward to more messages and offers. You’ll be able to build trust, respect and a reputation.
Before you know it, your conversion rate through email will increase significantly.
