E-mail marketing offer many benefits social media doesn’t.
In a previous post, I wrote that e-mail marketing is still very important and should be a part of any company’s marketing plan. E-mail, I said, has been around way before social media marketing and platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. With the projected increase of e-mail accounts rising to a worldwide total of 5.2 billion in 2018, according to The Radicati Group, and that e-mails sent and received each day in the business sector will reach 139.4 billion in the same year, there are obvious benefits to e-mail marketing.
While social media allows marketers to interact, sometimes in real time, with consumers, there are limits to what it can do. Social media traffic alone does not guarantee a sale and does not mean much. E-mail marketing, however, allows marketers more opportunities to engage with customers. Also, while people’s time on social media varies, sometimes even discontinuing accounts, they always check e-mails.
1. Personable. E-mail allows marketers to be more personable with their consumers. While personal conversations occur on Facebook, less so on Twitter, they are more likely to take place via e-mail. Especially for B2B marketing, CEOs and other business owners use private or business e-mail accounts, such as Google and Outlook, for interaction. Even B2C marketing depends on e-mails, since marketers cannot use Facebook’s messaging feature to have private conversations with their target audience.
2. Perception. While social media is also used by various companies and organizations, and professionals who work in them, e-mail has the perception of being the most mature. Clients want to see that companies they are interacting with have a valid e-mail address by which they can communicate. Would you tell a client to send you a Facebook message? It wouldn’t look professional.
3. Depth. E-mail allows B2B and B2C marketers to go more in-depth with their target audience. A well-formatted e-mail that goes straight to the point will allow marketers to keep their audience engaged, giving them the opportunity to fully flesh out their product or services. E-mail also allows B2B and B2C marketers to get at the heart of a dispute with clients.
4. Attention. Sometimes people are so fed up with social media that they will ignore it. You often hear of people attempting to stay off of Facebook for a certain period of time to reconnect with the real world, to purge their digitally afflicted minds and refocus. However, they still check their e-mail.
