Email Crushes Social Media: Is Top Marketing, Sales and Lead Generation Tactic over Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Content marketing using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube rank among the buzziest trends in marketing.  Everyone says: “You must use Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, if you want your business to remain viable and relevant to customers?”  But are these pundits right?  Does social media really work for businesses?  Does hours posting content on social media ACTUALLY lead to sales and positive returns on investments for all of the time spent on social media.  Or is social media a useful tool to garner attention and basically white noise? You would be surprised at what statistics show.  So, remove yourself from the social media buzz world for a second, stop tweeting and trying to get people to “Like” your Facebook page and reassess.

Email, yes email, STILL consistently ranks as the most commonly used and successful digital marketing tactic in terms of engagement, interaction, and revenue and sales lead generation. According to a July 2013 survey conducted by Constant Contact (a FLIMP multimedia Platform integrated email service provider), while 80%+ of business use social media to communicate it is hard to track if their social media campaigns actually result in tangible results.  And, 43 percent of small businesses that don’t use social media noted that email marketing sufficed.

Even more telling is the fact that email usage is increasing for marketers and communication directors because email messages can be customized with video and beautiful images that attract attention and engagement.  Custora reported on July 1, 2013 that eCommerce retailers have quadrupled the rates of customers acquired via email marketing over social media.  Customer acquisitions from the Facebook and Twitter social media networks barely register and have remained this way the PAST 4 years, while customer acquisition via email has continued to grow each quarter over the past 4 years.

Email is a marketing workhorse and the proliferation of new exciting and engaging ways to create email messages may be the reason why.  Once organizations commit to building email lists and developing excellent and relevant content on a weekly basis, launching an engaging and informative email campaign using images, video, and call to action links is fun, straightforward and relevant.  Additionally, email marketing provides superior real-time, audience engagement metrics on who the person is engaging with an email and how they are engaging.  This is a huge value to a salesperson or organization as it allows them to follow up on right away on people that are actively engaged.  Social Media channels provide general metrics that are often, let’s be candid, more generic (and ultimately useless). When was the last time you actually returned to a business page you liked on Facebook, if it wasn’t a bar, restaurant or a professional sports franchise?

If you email, marketers and communications gurus find that video emails set yourself apart from the competition and engage more people.  A joint study from The Relevancy Group and StreamSend (also integrated into the FLIMP multimedia platform) found that 55 percent of marketers cited increase click-through rate as a key benefit to using video email marketing.  Study found that video emails also were virally shared more often than other forms of content:  41 percent of subscribers share video email content.   These are among a few reasons why 81 percent of marketers plan to use video email in the near future, as reported by eMarketer.

Not convinced yet?  Well, how about creating a 360 strategy to using video for your communications, marketing, business development, and sales efforts?  It’s pretty easy.

One of the best things about using video in any form of digital communications is that once the content is created, it can be repurposed – anywhere! Video email content can be shared via social media(yes do this), on websites, in email, on landing pages, and in interactive brochures and newsletters.   The key is to develop a strategy to consistently produce video content that is relevant and cost-effective.. If you want to start marketing with video (but don’t know where to start), Spark Media came up with 20 fantastic video content ideas.

Email and video email marketing and email communications aren’t a bandwagon fad.   Rather, they are proven communications tools that should be a part of every marketer’s toolkit.  The fun is just beginning!

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Jenn O’Meara is the Director of Client Services at Flimp Media.  With a diverse digital marketing communications background, Jenn enjoys working directly with Flimp Media’s clients.  A graduate of Providence College and Boston University, Jenn can be found rink side most winter weekends cheering on the PC Friars Hockey teams.  In the summer, look for Jenn at the beach.