Believe it or not, we still talk to clients and prospects on a regular basis who don’t want to “bother with Email marketing” because they think email is a dying channel. They think they should be focusing their marketing efforts – and dollars – on Social Media marketing, or mobile marketing, or other emerging channels, instead of “wasting time” on email.

But, according to a consumer study conducted in May, 97% of respondents check their personal email account every single day. In contrast, only 59% claim to update their Facebook status every day.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am in no way suggesting that you, or any small business, abandon your Social media efforts and concentrate soley on email marketing. What I am suggesting is that you merge the two as much as possible. Don’t think of email and social media as totally separate and distinct channels. Instead, try to incorporate social media marketing into your email program and weave your email and list building efforts into your social media marketing.

Email marketing expert David Daniels has outlined a few points to keep in mind when incorporating social media into your email program:

Consumer Email Behavior: Leveraging Social in Email Marketing

“Email is an integral part of social marketing. Email was the first social networking tool. Email is our digital fingerprint; you need an email address to have a Twitter account or most social accounts…if you’re going to do anything online, email is a …”
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2207399/consumer-email-behavior-leveraging-social-in-email-marketing

I especially like points #6 and #7 – we put these issues front and center when we’re creating new marketing strategies for our clients:

6. Don’t start with more than what you can maintain.

7. You should be using social to drive prospects to your website.

The truth is, social media can be extremely time consuming. And there’s a good possibility that your target audience is active on more than one social media platform. But your social media efforts will be so much more effective if you build up a strong presence on one platform rather than several weak profiles on multiple platforms. This is especially important if you’re working with a consultant to get your social media marketing program up and running. The consulting firm will most likely have a staff member dedicated to developing and initiating your social media presence. But will you be able to maintain those efforts when you take over your accounts? So start small, be realistic about how much time and/or staff you can devote to social media, and don’t bite off (or let the consultant bite off) more than you can chew.

As for point #7, keep in mind that, regardless of the channel, email marketing and social media marketing (and mobile marketing, and telemarketing, and augmented reality marketing, etc etc etc) are still marketing. It’s great to have conversations with your prospects and listen to what your clients are saying and all the other benefits of going social, but if there is no result to your bottom line, you’re just wasting time and money. You need to take control of your efforts, have an end goal in mind, and track and measure everything – and the best way to do that is by driving your prospects to your website. Social media platforms will come and go, terms of service will constantly change, but your website is your domain where you make the rules.

If you haven’t incorporated social into your email marketing yet, or if (egads!) you’re thinking of dropping your email marketing altogether, give us a call at 888-660-0062. We’d love to help you get started with a fresh new program that will reach your target market and impact your bottom line.