Do you remember the first time you ever heard the word Internet? For me, it was 1993 — I was watching the news on one of the major networks, and the anchor invited viewers to provide feedback over the phone or by “logging on to the Internet.” On the screen, they showed an email address.
That was fifteen years ago, when to most people, the Internet and email were one of the same. Nowadays, everybody is talking about Web 2.0 and social media, all the new ways in which people communicate. Email seems to be taking a backseat.
But the fact remains that virtually everybody on the Internet has at least one email address, and they check it with regularity. It’s a captive audience, and — when treated right — a lurative. Maybe that’s why we saw a study by Datran earlier this year indicating that four out of five marketing executives expect further increases in email marketing budgets.
Here are just three of the reasons why it would be premature to discount email marketing in favor of social media.
Control over your content. When you’re running your own email campaigns, you make every decision on the look and feel of your communications (and get more value out of your copywriters). In search and social media, your branding is largely at the whim of the parent sites. There are many examples out there of well-designed email marketing — I particularly like FileMaker’s emails. (This email features Bento, which incidentally is a fine product to help manage home-grown email campaigns.)
Simplified analytics. Even if you’re not using a service like Constant Contact (which offers built-in tools to analyze open rates and click-through), you’ve got options. With a Google Analytics account and Google’s URL Builder, it is very easy to segment your different end-user groups. For example: if you put out a press release and want to alert all your clients, partners, as well as industry professionals, you can create unique tracking URLs for each, so that your Analytics will clearly differentiate them by all the essential metrics: bounce rate, pages per visit, navigation path, and more.
Email and social media are not all that different. Think about what make social media unique: refined targeting, direct feedback loops, facilitated conversation, latent viral potential. Ever send a customer an email? Ever receive a chain letter? It’s not all that different.
Here’s the icing on the cake: because email as a communications medium is much more mature than most of its alternatives, most marketers of growing businesses are likely to have more experience and a bigger audience on the email channel.
