In recent years, the spotlight has been turned on social media and its value in online marketing. Sure, social media allows you to engage with your current or potential clients in real time, but there are many benefits of why email lists trump social media that you may have not realized. Social media algorithms are constantly changing – ensuring that your message reaches your target audience requires a nuanced social media marketing strategy; even still, it can be incredibly difficult to leverage social media to effectively disseminate information about your company and your products or services.
So, when it comes to personalizing your message and promoting your product and service, many marketing experts will tell you that email lists trump social media – let’s take a closer look at why.
Targeted Marketing
The best managed social media accounts provide an excellent opportunity to make first contact with potential clients. In marketing realms, we’re increasingly seeing social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram used as an outreach tool which allows you to build an email list. Unlike social media, email is the go-to for building your customer relationship as it allows you to cultivate leads, convert sales, and promote repeat business. But why is this case?
Ultimately, with email, you get a captive audience and your message is more easily shared with your current or potential customers. Social media is a highly competitive landscape where even if your message is broadcast in a feed, it is more difficulty to gain your reader’s attention. On the other hand, people will have fewer emails to review so a carefully crafted email with an effective call-to-action is much more likely to get attention.
Why Email Lists Trump Social Media
Better Control
With social media, your message is shared with all your contacts regardless of their demographic. With email, you have significantly more control over the message that is sent and to whom. This versatility allows you to not only share more information with your reader but also information that is personalized. Not only is your marketing message better targeted in email, but you can also personalize the message in a way that allows you to build stronger connections with your reader.
Further, email mailing lists can be segregated based on the behaviour of individual recipients. You can usually gather more information about recipients on your list and then further customize your emails based on their unique behaviour. Similarly, email allows you better control over your testing. As mentioned, you can gather information about what works for certain clients and what doesn’t work.
Email allows you to optimize messaging by testing content style and length, image use, calls-to-action, and so much more so that you can refine your communications to the needs and interests of your audience while also using strategies that are specific to the individual rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
Fewer Legal Guidelines
When it comes to terms of use, there is a lot more freedom in email than social media. Social media
sites ban content related to guns, gambling, prescription medications, and there are other limitations to use in their fine print. Additionally, social media platforms can apply penalties seemingly arbitrarily – even if you think you are acting within the rules, bots may ban your content which may have a long-term impact.
When it comes to email lists and email marketing, you certainly must follow local, provincial, and federal laws, but there are usually no additional rules dictating what can and cannot be communicated.
As you can see, there are many reasons that email lists are still the go-to for online marketing. It can be daunting to start developing an email list, though you probably already have a significant database to draw from. To learn more about using email lists for online marketing, contact our team of experts at 99 Digital today.