The Most Powerful Social Marketing Tactic

By Maura Mitchell

What’s the most powerful social marketing tactic? Email. The answer is email.

Before you say, “That’s not social media marketing,” consider this. Email is the #1 way that consumers share brand recommendations with friends. Over half of Americans who tell friends about products do so via email, 44% use Facebook, and 3% Tweet (sorry, Twitter).

Over the past 18 months, consumers who received email product endorsements from friends were significantly more likely to buy than those who saw personal posts on Facebook. What’s more, email-generated customers had a higher lifetime value than those from other social media.

Why is email driving such strong results? Emails get attention. The open rate for opt-in email is 31%. Open rates and click-through rates are actually increasing month over month, especially on mobile.

Email is powerful, but that doesn’t mean you should walk away from social media. Personal recommendations on Facebook reach more people than email endorsements. Plus, recent research from Google shows that social networks and email are important at different times in the sales cycle. Social media plays a key role when consumers determine which brands to consider, while email is more important when they decide which specific product in their consideration set to buy.

• Have you spent enough time considering what role email should play in your marketing strategy?
• Are you dedicating enough time and money to executing email marketing?
• Are you thinking about how to integrate email marketing and social media marketing to reach consumers at the appropriate points in the sales cycle?