With so much emphasis placed on the importance of social media and SEO in your online marketing mix, should good old fashioned email marketing be laid to rest?
The short answer is no, and here’s why.
Some people still read newspapers
Despite everyone having been seduced by the shiny new technology of the internet, it’s worth remembering that some people still read newspapers. Yes, you can get the same content (mostly) for free online and choose which stories you want to read, but some people still like to pay for the paper version and read it cover to cover.
New is not necessarily better.
Although Facebook has a lot of users, it still can’t beat the number of people with an email address. Marketing is about reaching your customers where they live, and as much time as people spend on social networking sites, the only place you’re absolutely guaranteed to find them is in their inbox.
Advantages of email
Email is a fundamentally different form of communication to social media, and so carries its own advantages. For example:
Guaranteed views
OK, so most people on your mailing list probably don’t open the email, but at least they’ve seen it. If someone doesn’t log on to Facebook or Twitter for a couple of hours they might miss your post entirely.
High engagement
It takes more effort to sign up to a mailing list (particularly with opt-in confirmations) than to follow or like. Taking the time indicates a more willing audience.
More direct
People are generally more receptive to selling via email than social media.
Depending on what mailing list software you use, it can also be much easier to track ROI; particularly as the production and sending of a mailout is a fixed cost.
Working together
Far from being abandoned, email marketing should be a crucial part of your online marketing mix. Your mailing list can be an excellent starting point for social media followers and vice versa, giving you more contact points for your customers.
Additionally, archived newsletter content can be more easily shared on social media as well as providing content for posts.
It’s important to make your message accessible to as many as people as possible in the way they want to access it. To ignore the only service on the internet everyone has an account for would be foolish.
Image credit: Breibeest
Hi Search Blogger! I 100% agree, when I send out a mass e-mail to my blog engage subscribers I get a good 1500 visits from it right away! I don’t think SEO and social media will ever have these types of results. With that said I also still think SEO and Social Media play a huge part in the success of any company’s online business. I find people look at the mass e-mails in more details then they would a shared link on Twitter or Facebook.
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Hi Brian, thanks for commenting and retweeting my article. I don’t think email marketing will ever become extinct and people should use it as part of an overall marketing strategy like you clearly do yourself. All the best, Jamie