3 Darn Good Reasons Why You Should Use Email Marketing to Gain New Customers (Instead of Social)

Rebecca Felker

“No matter how old it gets, email marketing will still be relevant.” –Para Arora

Social media is the shiny new object. Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Twitter (to name a few) have become must-have tools for companies to communicate with prospects and customers. Given this “shiny new object” syndrome, let’s not forget or doubt the power of email.

Times have changed since the days of “You’ve Got Mail.” On average, the 2.6 billion email users receive 88 emails per day. That’s a lot of email. So, the question comes to mind, with the large number of emails that people receive every day and the rise of social media, should I use email marketing to help my business acquire new customers?

The answer is a big YES. And here are 3 reason why using email marketing will be an advantage to help drive your customer acquisition efforts.

1. More Bang for Your Buck

Email marketing is affordable and offers a staggering return on investment. According to Direct Marketing Association and Demand Metric, a survey of marketers in the US reported that email achieved a median ROI of 122%. This was more than 4 times higher than other marketing channels, including direct mail, paid search and social media.

2. It Outperforms “Likes”

In some instances, email is better when it comes to reach. The organic reach on Facebook dropped to 49%, lingering at around 6% of your fan base according to a 2014 study by Social@Ogilvy. This is compared to the average email open rate of 21.7%. This means if you send 3,000 emails and have 3,000 Facebook fans – 651 people will open your email and only 180 Facebook fans will see your post.

3. The Almighty Automation

Automation has taken email to the next level and makes email marketing even more effective. No more one-off campaigns to a whole list in one send. Marketing automation has given us:

• the ability to automagically nurture prospects with highly personalized and useful content
• allows for dynamic content based on an individual’s specific user profile
• helps to develop optimal marketing patterns (such as send time, subject headers)
• categorizes customers and prospects by common behaviors, demographic information and interests

Email marketing remains a vital part of a company’s integrated marketing strategy. How will you be using email marketing to convert your prospects into new customers?