Email marketing is a thing of the past right? Wrong. When it comes to connecting with your clients and potential clients, it’s very tempting to stick to social media. After all, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are all easy ways to reach a large group of people quickly. And when you’re strapped for time, they’re the easiest way to go.
But it would be a mistake to decide that social media will be the only ways you connect with your core customer groups and here are five reasons why.
Email is NOT Dying
The website Opt-in Monster tossed out some amazing numbers about email in March. The big ones that you need to know:
– We send 102.6 trillion emails every year and that number is going up.
– 90% of people over the age of 15 use email.
– 99% of us check that email every day.
The takeaway, email is one of the few mediums that isn’t dying with the next generation. While Facebook is seen as an older generation tool and Instagram and SnapChat are younger generation ones, email is the one mainstay.
Best Return on Investment (ROI)
To toss some more numbers at you, according to a 2018 report from Campaign Monitor, business owners say they still see the best ROI from email marketing. 59% say email marketing has the highest ROI compared to the 21% that say the best ROI comes from social media marketing.
Advertising dollars are tight so you want to squeeze as much out of them as you can.
A Chance to Get Personal
Social media like Twitter and Instagram are great ways to connect to a large group of people, but email is the only way to connect directly with one person. Even if you’re sending an email out to a list, you can still personalize each and every email with a name and maybe even shopping preference.
Customers notice that personal touch.
You’re Not Jumping Into Ice Cold Water
Usually, any email marketing list you use is one that you cultivated yourself. That means that you obtained the emails through visitors to your website, past customers, people who signed up for your catalog, etc. In other words, they were interested enough to visit your website or check out your booth at a local trade show. They want to know more.
Compare that to social media, where your Facebook ads are going out to people you target, but those people may or may not care. Think about it. You’re paying every time your ad pops up in front of someone who may or may not care.
Customer Tracking
One of the biggest edges a company can get is information. The better you understand your customers, what they like and what they want, the better you can customize your business to appeal to them.
The absolute best thing about email marketing is all the data you’re going to gather. You can see if someone cares more about Product A or Product B. You’ll find out if customers care more about free shipping or a 20% discount on their purchase. Each and every move you make through email marketing is going to help you better understand your customers.
For some tips on the best tools to optimize your social media strategy, check out this post.
Written by Erika Towne