Most marketers have, at some point, devoted some time to wondering whether they are having more success with their Facebook and Twitter campaigns than with their email newsletters. Or whether to simply piggy-back their brand names on the social waves in order to drive a little extra traffic to their website and mailing list.
According to a recent study conducted by a reputable integrated marketing firm, email remains secure as an integral part of online marketing and communications, as more than 500 of their clients took part in a survey to shed light on consumer trends and brand engagement patterns.
The findings from their survey reveal that consumers are far more likely to opt-in to a company’s email newsletter subscription than “Like” the company’s Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter. It showed that email subscribers outnumber Facebook “Likes” by an impressive average ratio of 70-to-1, and also found that the average ratio of email subscribers to Twitter followers is a hefty 90-to-1 figure. So cumulatively, (on average) that makes 160 legitimate email opt-ins for every 2 social media followers – a difference of 8000%!
Dwarfing Facebook and Twitter, email marketing tactics have shown that they’re more useful and reliable in reaching consumers compared to spewing out mounds of tweet and status update confetti. Though at the same time the study found that only 10% of marketers include an email opt-in mechanism on their branded Facebook pages. And only 38% of marketers said they plan to add an email opt-in to their Facebook page, with 22% saying that they have no plans to do so at all. And finally, only a miniscule 4% of the participating marketers said have an opt-in feature in their SMS campaign programs. Hence there is an astronomical gap in the market for SMS campaigners to garner a followership via mobile since most businesses are yet to tap into the platform.
But regardless, it has been argued that small businesses are struggling to incorporate email sign-ups into their Facebook pages since they may not own the company’s page or may not have an integrated marketing department where email and social efforts have been married into one process. They also may not know how to include an opt-in mechanism or want to risk discouraging Facebook fans by asking them to opt-in for email programs. These are said to be the most common reasons why marketers have excluded email opt-ins, and although Facebook and Twitter boast over a combined 700 million users, there’s no better way for extending your reach than with email.
Whether it means creating an email marketing program altogether or simply placing an opt-in button onto your fold, email is a powerful tool that allows the opportunity to take advantage of separate marketing channels to grow each other.
