Email Marketing More Meaningful Than Social Media!

Another in the latest of behaviour studies into today’s social media messaging culture reports that email marketing is still the best sales channel of all. Surprised? The simple truth, as often reasserted, is that far from being killed off by Twitter and Facebook, email marketing is still used as today’s most meaningful online tool!

So, in the age of immediate feedback messaging, instant social media engagement and purpose-search mobile apps, why is email marketing, the, oldest pinger in town, still hitting the right buttons?

According to an US media survey, the answer is different user preferences. This means the assignment of different purposes to their own preferred platforms and channels. It cannot be automatically assumed that the media methods chosen to communicate and engage with news, information and entertainment would be the best channel for the express purpose of conveying eCommerce marketing messages.

All of us, as highly targeted – and constantly bombarded – potential consumers, also know that we can segregate and control how and where different types of messages and forms of media can flow according to the platforms we activate for different intentions, and for different online personas. Any invasion by messages not strictly within the defined usage area, say our Facebook page, is simply considered much less than if they arrived by email.

The research, which concentrated on the 18 to 34 age group, revealed they are more likely to be influenced to consider purchases based on online marketing messages received by email than those received via social networks. Despite the endless mountains of spam, email remains a meaningful online tool, with over three quarters stating their email use had either stayed the same or actually increased in the last 12 months.

Amongst the various study groups, the younger the user, the more they thought that their social channels were private and not available for marketing messages. Young professional women are more likely than men to use social media channels and social networking, but both, at over 90 percent, are the biggest of online shoppers.

Meanwhile, half of young married couples use social networks but respond better to direct mail and email marketing. Similarly, over 80 per cent of retired consumers use social networks, but have responded positively by making a purchase as a result of receiving some form of direct marketing.

Given that social media platforms have been thought of as opening up valuable, segmented opportunities for more interactive marketing strategies to build niche brand identity, the survey shows that advertising on social networks is viewed as being annoying at best but also, actually offensive and even felt to be a violation of private messaging channels.