Electronic mail or Email has become the mainstay medium of official or professional communication between two or more people. However, with the dominance of social media like Facebook and other online communication software that offers instant responses to clients, is there still a need for email marketing?
On the other side of the spectrum, people focus totally on social media and rely on communication speed to connect directly to customers. However, what will you choose if you are a company hoping to go online and try out internet marketing? Well, the answer is simple, combine social and email marketing with the potential for getting more customers, especially in today’s online world.
How can a Social media and email marketing strategy work?
Email marketing has a bigger and more direct reach.
There is perceived importance when information is coursed through emails. That is why emails are considered critical information protected through the data privacy act, especially now. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have almost three billion accounts and 200 million users, respectively. However, there are four billion email accounts, and it is expected to reach nearly five billion in 2025.
The sheer number of emails means that having a good, active and comprehensive email marketing strategy has a more extensive reach than social media. So, in this first point, ignoring email marketing will mean that the company will have been left off from a vast source of potential customers online.
Emails have a higher chance of being read.
Unlike Facebook posts, emails will always most likely be read by their recipients. You can have thousands of followers on Facebook, yet, only a handful will be able to read your posts at a given time. On the other hand, you have a larger percentage of success that people will read your message if you’ve sent it through email, making email marketing more reliable when you want to connect with people directly.
Conversations through email are more preferred professionally.
Many companies, businesses, and ordinary people prefer to conduct their official conversations and transactions through email. Though social media offer faster information delivery, the quality of information sent through emails is more directly focused on you. According to a study shown here, people would prefer to receive promotional content through email rather than Facebook or social media posts.
Email marketing continues your conversation with your customers.
Though a company must always look for prospective customers with every campaign they make, your current customers are the most significant profit source. Through email marketing, you can cement your relationship with your customers and provide them with more products and services, which they can enjoy. Because they are already convinced in your company, it is not hard to invest more in your new products and services. Email marketing helps maintain communication with your current customers and make them a part of a community of people supporting your business.
If email marketing is great, where does social media come in?
The foundation of any email marketing scheme is having a list of emails; however, getting that list of emails is not easy. In some cases, people will pay people for their list of emails, which is not advisable. So, to have your list, you need a way to get it from people voluntarily. The easiest way is to have them subscribe to you and give you their emails freely in exchange for something they like, such as daily content, products and such.
Social media is good at attracting people to subscribe to you and get their emails. Social media is geared to fast communication, and you can easily sponsor a post and have it advertised to millions of people. What you can do is provide people with content in social media, have them like your content, and then offer them a subscription to get new content regularly.
Through this method, you will slowly build a legit email list that you know is highly interested in what you have to offer. You can then start your email marketing campaign on your email list and start promoting products or services, which they can purchase.
How to start an email marketing campaign?
- Determine the product or service to be advertised – first in the list is to determine what you will promote to people. Determine key reasons why people should get your product or service, and make sure that these points are relatable to most people in your email list.
- Craft your email sequences – An email sequence is a list of emails you will send on a specific time frame to generate the maximum engagement with people in your email list. You must have a list of emails that you’ll send, craft each of those emails to make it readable and make sure that each email is personalised, engaging and attractive.
- Develop the right tone and voice of your message – Your company must have a definite tone and voice that will connect with your customers. Determine if you want your emails to sound formal, informal, casual, friendly, funny, informative, academic and such. Each tone and voice have its pros and cons, and finding what represents your company the most is necessary.
- Always provide value in each email you send – Nobody wants to receive spammy emails. It’s crucial that every email you draft for your campaign announce offers and offer value. People should find your emails interesting and fun to read. If the email fails to provide value, it will be considered spam mail and will most likely get flagged and deleted by its recipient. It will hurt the credibility of the business and reduce its presence online.
In the end, despite the massive clout social media has online, it can’t fully replace the effectiveness of an effective email marketing campaign. So, instead of choosing one side of this spectrum, use the best of both mediums and get the maximum investment return your company can achieve. Start your email marketing campaign today and supplement it with a social media campaign and increase the rate of your advertising success dramatically.
