Remember the blog article I posted about a week ago on the power of social media? Well, if you’ve taken notice of how rapidly social media marketing has become a focus point in the online marketing world I’m assuming you’ve also wondered: “But if I can accomplish all this with just Facebook and Twitter, do I still need email marketing?”
Earlier this week, eMarketer reported that social media usage is on the rise, which explains the appeal of social marketing: The new market potential it presents. Yet a mere two weeks ago Marketing Sherpa’s weekly chart indicated that marketers still believe email marketing to be as strong as ever. So…which one is more effective then???
It’s a matter of confusion for some, but I came across this case study on MarketingVox that perfectly illustrates the different effects of email and social media marketing:
Email marketing can convert double the number of sales that social media can.
At the end of the day, as much as you benefit from marketing a healthy brand and maintaining a high visibility and recognition across all channels, what you’re really after is converting that presence and those consumer relationships into sales. Because that’s where the money is.
How did they find this?
Mary Spio is a partner in Gen2Media, an agency that works some big names in the music industry like John Mayer and the Black Eyed Peas. She took a look at two of their music artists (in the study they refer to them as A and B, so I’ll stick to that) and compared their different marketing approaches and the effects on their individual sales.
A, a Latin artist, managed to get 20 millionviews on the social network YouTube, but showed little interest in pursuing an email marketing campaign. Artist B, however, implemented an email campaign to be in direct contact with fans, gathered a list of 2 million subscribers and launched a personalized weekend-long email campaign in which he offered his subscribers exclusive tracks through iTunes. In those two days the email campaign raised $ 700,000.
Social media, when managed properly, is a great tool to grow an audience of potential and existing customers for your brand, but it is a mass communication tool. Now I know email is also a mass communication tool, but it’s more personal – with email, you take the communication to an individual follower, addressing them by name and through their inbox. As Spio stated: “Emails can be close and personal as you individually address your customers versus posts that are impersonal and don’t offer that one-to-one experience. Conversions for social media posts are much lower.”
The winning strategy? A firm believer in having my cake and eating it too, I opt for the best of both worlds. The trick is to know the strengths and weaknesses of each tool and use them to complement each other.
As this case study indicates, broadening your reach through social media is fantastic, but remember that consumers value being treated as individuals – with email marketing you can target subscribers individually, building a loyal customer base. And, of course, converting those sales.
