Email Marketing Knocks Out Social Media in 5 Rounds

1vs_s Vš Email social media S marketing An EPIC showdown between two of the most widely used digital marketing platforms. Which one deserves your marketing dollars? Round 1: Benefits Email is the favoured communication tool for individuals and businesses. But savvy businesses are embracing the power of social networks to boost visibility, page ranking, and customer engagement. Here's a look at how these two marketing regimes stack up: Creating and maintaining a mailing list is easy Potentially gathers a huge amount of fans, followers, or "likes' Creates opportunities to network and engage with a broad audience Easy integration with customers Little or no cost One of the cheapest forms of marketing available Low cost Cheaper than other forms of direct marketing Campaigns are easy to track and ROI is measurable Campaigns are measurable through a number of free tools Lets businesses "push" the mes- sage rather than "pull" Captures imme- diate interaction and feedback from customers Generates brand Helps generate repeat business awareness Opt-in features make email a Helps improve search engine ranking form of consensual marketing They've battled it out, benefit to benefit and... Round 1 is a draw! Round 2: Growth Email has been the go-to digital marketing tool for the past decade but social media is catching up... fast! Email marketing spend increased by That's because email marketing delivered Email's share of digital marketing budget 60% 4000% 17.4% ROI in 2012 in 2012 in 2011 BUT social media marketing boasts even more stellar numbers Social media marketing budget projected to reach $4.7bn in 2012 Small to medium-sized businesses projected to increase their social media budgets by Business plans that include an increased marketing spend 100% 70% in 2012 Social media's share of digital marketing budget 13.7% in 2011 Email marketing still rules, but social media is exploding! Round 2 goes to Social Media! Round 3: Usage There is a lot of hype surrounding social media. But what is actually the #1 online activity? 1. Send or read email 94% Email is the MOST POPULAR online activity 3. Check the weather 4. Get news 75% 81% 2. Use a search engine 83% 5. Have fun or pass the time 6. Search for info about someone you know 7. Buy a product 66% 72% 69% 9. Do online banking 8. Use social networking site (e.g. Facebook) 58% Only 61% of Internet 2$ users accesS social media It's no surprise who takes this round... Round 3 goes to Email Marketing Round 4: Reach The hype would have you believe users rely on social media to download information. But what about access to commercial information? 75% Media usage per age group (commercial use) Age 18-29 of all online adults say email is their preferred marketing method 74% тхт 2% 4% Age 30-39 78% тхт 2% Of the total time spent using email, % devoted to commercial email: 4% Age 40-49 75% 2% 2005 17% 3% Age 50-64 72% тXT 1% 2011 30% Age 65+ 65% TXT 0% When it comes to commercial comunication, email is king Round 4 goes to Email Marketing Round 5: Features We looked through all the features that marketers need to run an effective and successful campaign and compared email marketing to social media. List management Segmentation IS IS • Create lists Import contacts • Create groups • Track opt-ins • Track opt-outs • Create lists • Create groups Segment contacts by demographics, company, age, income, title, language, geography, etc. Segment contacts by specific groups, language, and geography only. Deliverability = Message creation • HTML templates • Photoshop templates • No character limits to your message • Instantly share photos, videos or even links • You are limited in format, words, and maybe even characters 97%+ 100% messages delivered messages delivered Autoresponder Reporting & analytics IS Triggered emails automatically sent out. Automatic communication! There is no automated way to engage your customers. • Click-through rates • Open rates • Bounce rates • Conversions • Trends • Tweets & retweets Shares • Demographics • And more... Measure ROI! No analysis of customer behaviour or traffic Content sharing Mobile IS Tweet newsletters, share promotions on Facebook, even Digg blog updates right from email. Any content can be shared quickly and with one click; the potential reach is global. 55% 40% of tweets come from mobile devices check personal email. Émail is the #1 activity on mobile devices! 36% of mobile users access social media Social media threw some solid jabs but it's no contest... Round 5 goes to Email Marketing! Final tally Email Smarketing social media Eмail Social media does deserve the hype. But when it comes to results and effectiveness, email marketing comes out on top.. KO! Brought to you by HostPapa Green Web Hosting Sources • Apogee Results (2012). "White Paper: 2012 Online Marketing Trends" • Dan Freeman, President, Marketing Growth Strategies (2011). "Email Marketing: An Industry Overview" • Borrell Associates (2012). "Main Street Goes Social: SMBS Give a Big Thumbs- • Marketing Profs (2011). "Social Media Ad Spend to Reach $8.3 Billion by 2015" • Awareness, Inc. (2011). "The State of Social Media Marketing: Top Areas for Social Marketing Investment and Biggest Social Marketing Challenges in 2012" • Merkle (2011). "View from the Digital Inbox 2011. Digital Marketing Insights from the Annual Consumer Attitudes and Usage Study" to Social Media"