Your email list is the most important marketing asset you own.
Why?
Every person signed up to your newsletter for a reason. They opted in because they saw something they liked about your business. There is a connection. They have the potential to be your most loyal customers.
According to Mckinsey, email is significantly more effective than social media at acquiring customers. In fact it is 40x more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined.
Moreover, it is 3x better at promoting purchases.
The average order value from an email campaign is 17% higher than other platforms.
For every £1 spent. The average ROI is £38 (source dma.org.uk) compared to £7.30 for flyers or £17 for pay per click advertising.
Social media vs email
Most people don’t see a tweet and it’s difficult to get engagement on Facebook unless you pay for it. Facebook can and will change their algorithms without warning.
With emails you are not beholden to these algorithms deciding what your followers see. You don't have to bid for clicks to get exposure.
Growing social media follower count doesn't mean you are growing sales. In fact social media is known more for being great to raise awareness but not for conversions. And if they don't engage early on social media, they will be less and less likely to see your future posts. They are as good as a lost customer.
So you need to encourage them to sign up to your email newsletter early on in their engagement.
On average, 99.3% of your email will get delivered to your reader’s inbox, compared to only 5.5% seeing your organic Facebook post.
With emails you can communicate directly with your readers when you want to.
"Facebook surrendered to the Russians. Email beat spam."
Dave Pell
Control
Email is not ideal, but it is decentralised (it's not owned by a big corporation), reliable and not going anywhere.
Online, there are only two areas your business has full control over. One is your website. The other is email marketing.
Emails give you control over the branding, the message and the timing. You can boost traffic to your website, increase brand awareness and it's one of the most effective ways to convert your customers online.
A well written email, with a link to an effective landing page will help your search engine rankings (SEO) by reducing your bounce rate, increasing social shares and directing your customers where you want them to go.
You own your email lists.
If you decide to change from Mail Chimp to Campaign Monitor, you can take your email lists with you. Try doing that with your Facebook followers.
Emails give you space to tell stories.
You have a direct connection with your readers. They chose to subscribe. That's a good start. It gives you time to have a slower conversation than the 'blink and you'll miss it' social media. Reader’s may scroll absent mindedly on a social media feed, but they behave differently with their inbox.
There are no distraction software social media feeds. There are no likes to chase, no viral campaigns to dream of...
That isn’t to say social media should be ignored. It still has an important part to play in your marketing strategy. It’s very effective at raising awareness of your organisation and starting a conversation with them. It also acts as a funnel to encourage sign-ups to your email newsletter.
You just need to understand the strength and weaknesses of each of the platforms. To use each one for a specific purpose.
Newsletters reward brevity and clarity. The rewards are when you deliver maximum value. When you compose an email newsletter, you aren't forced to go to your stream and take look at what everyone else is doing. You are in your own space.
Your readers also have control.
They can opt in or opt out when they want. They control their inbox. Emails don't go away if you don't check your inbox. It's right there where they left it. Not in the depths of some curated timeline.
Measurable
Email reporting is advanced. You can measure your list growth, list engagement who opens, how often they open and where they click too. You can optimise your marketing funnels. Set them up once and each reader receives a personalised email journey.
"... the conversation is one-to-one even though the distribution is one-to-many."
Craig Mod
The Monthly Jotter
My monthly email newsletter is published at elevenses on the last Friday of each month. It’s a mixture of ideas, designs, words and images to inspire you to think and act creatively.
