Social Media still Lag’s Email Marketing

Email is Still King: Why Social Media Lags Behind for Marketing

The sales lead generation company, Find New Customers, is pleased to offer this guest post by Amy Clear, a recent college graduate.  We hope you enjoy it.

__

There’s been a great obsession in businesses to acquire customer intelligence,  and this is why we see those big numbers in digital media spending. The ongoing growth of the existing social media sites and the emergence of the new ones may get great love, but e-mail communication remains king when reaching prospects via your sales lead generation programs.  

The reliance on content in marketing strategies has been phenomenal, and this leaves us to realize the importance of email. E-mail was and will remain a critical passage for tailored content to be shared with clients, colleagues, and prospects. Yes, social media can greatly communicate one’s expertise to the public, but it will never replace the significant function of e-mail marketing in sales lead generation.

Instead of having either or, if those digital channels can be implemented together, it would be perfect. But, if we need to compare, Social media still lags behind email primarily because people ignore the ads they see on these sites. Social media sites aren’t there to advertise goods. It’s more suitable for email to contain marketing letters.

Here are the three main reasons why this is so.

1. Emails Are More Likely to Convert Sales

Emails with a persuasive subject heading are almost always opened and read by the recipient. The best subject lines are short, have a sense of urgency, and personal. If the email contains discounts or coupons for products that interests the recipient, or general sales with a certain percentage off, it’s even more likely to receive a click. Interesting landing pages and secondary tabs with details all improve the chances of converting a sale.

Social media ads, on the other hand, embed alongside other content that is much more important to the user than the product or service the ad is representing. This could be posts and tweets by friends, news feeds, and games. And so, even if these ads receive a click, the chances of converting a sale aren’t as great as emails.

2. Emails Can Be Delivered to a Group More Likely to Respond

If a business has a list of customers and their email addresses, it can send each customer an email with the week’s specials or a newsletter outlining new initiatives, services, and products. This type of marketing is more effective at engaging the customer and making your business more attractive to them.

If you own a website, anyone that visited it and registered with the website or sent a comment in the contact form will receive an email. Unlike direct email marketing, social media targets groups of people with similar preferences or likes. This can include a large and diverse population interested in the ad presented to them. (Editor’s Note: for even better results with your sales lead generation programs, use a personalized landing page matched to the email topic.)

 

3. Email is Relatively Quick to Implement

Constructing a marketing email that is attractive and persuasive takes time and effort, but not as much as a social media campaign. Writing the subject heading and email body, as well as designing the landing page are the three main areas to focus on while creating the email.

Finding the contact list to send it to isn’t a problem if you have an established base. This might be more difficult if you are a new business with few contacts. If this is the case, building a social media campaign is probably worth the extra time and effort. This may not get you email addresses, but it will get you fans and followers that will read your posts and tweets.

Although social media sites like Facebook and Twitter give businesses access to more followers, it doesn’t necessarily translate into a significant enough method to completely replace traditional email marketing. One day this may happen, but receiving email still has its appeal. (Editor’s note: Amy is right and email should be front and center in your sales lead generation and digital marketing programs.)

 Author Bio: Amy, a recent college graduate & a freelance writer, has had a passion for writing for a long time. Besides writing, she loves traveling and exploring the world.