The enduring effectiveness of email marketing.

With all the buzz surrounding social media advertising, you may be wondering whether email marking is still a viable medium for promoting your brand. The social media numbers are impressive, certainly, with more than 2.45 billion active users on Facebook and 330 million active users on Twitter. Yet, there are 3x more email accounts than there are Facebook and Twitter users combined. Virtually anybody who is online has an active email address. So, email is not only viable, it remains the most powerful channel in a marketer’s bag of tricks. And while there are many benefits to email marketing, for this entry we’ve narrowed them down our top five:

1. Your customers get it.

Literally. According to a study done by Forrester Research, ninety percent of all emails sent find their way into the intended recipient’s inbox, compared with just two percent of your Facebook followers seeing your posts. Why? Because Facebook prioritizes paid advertising posts (isn’t it always about money?), so they limit the number of times your post appears in the news feed. Another reason is that, most likely, your email contacts opted in to receive your emails, so they’re far more likely to actually look at them. In fact, according to the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm, your message is five times more likely to be seen in an email than on Facebook. So if you have a choice between adding someone to your email list, or making a new Facebook friend, add the email contact.

2. Email is open for business.

As we mentioned above, Facebook adjusts its algorithm to prioritize posts that are paid for. Twitter, too, employs an algorithm-controlled feed. That means the vast majority of your brand followers will never see your posts in their social media news feeds. Email, on the other hand, isn’t controlled by anyone. It’s an open platform. So your email contact list is an asset you own, and will always be a reliable channel of communication.

3. Enhanced conversions.

The goal for any marketer, at the end of the day, is to convert potential customers into paying customers. And again, email is your best bet for this. In fact, email marketing drives more conversions than any other marketing channel, including search and social. According to a study conducted by the research group Aberdeen, personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by a full 10%. In fact, the average click-through rate of an email is roughly 3%, while the average click-through rate from a tweet is a scant 0.5%. In other words, you are 6x more likely to get someone to visit your site via email than Twitter.

4. More bang for your buck.

Let’s face it, social networks are, well — social — used primarily to stay in touch with family and friends. Generally speaking, email is considered to be a more professional channel, through which you’d expect to receive info about products, services, etc. In fact, according to a study cited by MarketingSherpa, an online marketing research firm, 72% of people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer to get it through social media.

Despite the ever-growing number of communication channels available to marketers, email marketing continues to offer the most effective results for promoting your brand and growing your business.

John Diggins
Copywriter Brand 33