Email Campaigns will drive more customers to your store than Twitter and Facebook

Generally speaking, email campaigns will drive more customers to your store than Twitter and Facebook. With all the hoopla and media attention given to social marketing channels such as Twitter and Facebook, the tried and tested way of connecting with customers, email newsletters, has seemingly taken a back seat of late. Although Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn might seem more “trendy” and “fun”, almost every online user in the country still connects with their email accounts on a daily basis. Business users, of course, access their email live as it’s pushed to their mobile devices. So while many of us might kick back after work and check-in with friends via Twitter and Facebook, it’s still our attention to email that’s firmly locked into place, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

For marketers this shouldn’t be overlooked. For many SMEs, the time required to maintain their social media channels is viewed as taxing. To maintain a strong presence within Twitter and Facebook requires at least an hour per day, scheduling Tweets, responding to direct messages, re-Tweeting and so on. You’re either dedicated to it or you’re not (and you either have the resources or you don’t).

On the other hand, email newsletters can be created in under an hour (significantly less if you keep things really simple), and on the basis of one campaign per week or per fortnight, the “hit rate” and returns offset against the time invested in T & F are far greater. If you’re selling products online and you announce a special via Twitter – and announce that same special via a targeted email campaign – the results will speak for themselves. Sure, there’s plenty of merchants out there reaping rewards and direct sales from Twitter and Facebook campaigns but let’s get serious here: in many cases email campaigns are not only targeted towards existing customers, but can be monitored via click rates without pouring over your Google Analytics stats.

So before you drop all your eggs into trendy social marketing channels, cast your eye back to email newsletters. The results will almost certainly outweigh even the best results found using other methods, and this is certainly the case with SMEs who may lack the marketing budget required to massage T & F 7 days a week.