SOCIAL MEDIA OR EMAIL MARKETING.

 

Social Media or Email Marketing - what works better for online

marketing? Should they be used together or are they purely mutually

exclusive? The question to these answers is not as simple as it may

seem. More and more email marketers are joining the social media

bandwagon to cope with Web 2.0 revolution. I believe that to be a

successful online marketer, you need to use the best of both worlds

- email marketing as well as social media.

 

Why Email Marketing Rules?

I believe that Email Marketing provides massive untapped potential

to reach out to prospect customers in a more private and intimate

way than most social networks. However, there's a thin line between

effective email marketing and spam marketing.

 

Email is the 'tried-and-tested' technique of online marketing and

it will be difficult for any social network (be it Facebook or

twitter) to completely eliminate Email Marketing.

 

Social Media as an Online Marketing Tool

Many detractors of Email Marketing claim that email is not built

for socializing and I whole-heartedly agree with them. Email has

always been a simple, easy to use and non-glamorous marketing tool.

In fact, the rise of social media has been largely built on the

email experience by adding more features and throwing in more

interactivity.

 

Contrary to Email, Social Media offers many innovative marketing

techniques - online video promotions (YouTube), audio podcasts, Fan

Pages (Facebook) and tweets (Twitter). It allows reaching out to a

large number of people on different networks amidst different walks

of life. However, it comes with a greater responsibility as well.

 

A Statistical Comparison

A study conducted by eMarketer indicates that Email is still

the king of online sharing and that too by a fair distance as

compared to its closest competitors. Further, Email Marketing

promises more page views per click when compared with any social

network.

 

Similarly, the 2010 - 2011 Marketing Trends report from StrongMail

suggests that Email Marketing still ranks as the primary choice of

most online marketers.

 

As many as 51% Marketing Programs indicated a strong preference for

Email Marketing as compared to 49% who opted for Social Media.

 

How About Social Media + Email Marketing Together?

In my opinion, the debate about Social Media vs. Email Marketing is

a non-starter. These are two distinct ways of online marketing

which can be combined together to achieve maximum benefits.

 

I certainly do not believe that social networks signal the death of

email as a marketing channel. Neither am I a strong opponent of

continuing to live in the email age despite a plethora of social

media networks cropping up on the internet every alternate day.

 

Many referral campaigns and incentive-based promotions have

benefited from the combo of Email + Social Media Marketing. The

socialization of Email Marketing is a reality and the sooner this

reality is accepted by online marketers, the better it is for their

business. Marketers must realize what works best in a specific

scenario and then take an educated decision on the appropriate

online marketing channel.

 

Coming back to the original question - will Social Media destroy

Email Marketing? No, I don't think so. After all, email was the

first ever passive social media network itself! 

 

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF THAT SAYS, "IT'S LONELY AT THE TOP";

IT'S LONELY AT THE TOP ONLY WHEN YOU FAIL TO TAKE OTHERS ALONG.

 

 To your success!

 

Douglas Idugboe

Founder, Smedio.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/smedio

Twitter: http://twitter.com/smedio and http://twitter.com/douglasi