E-mail Marketing Goes Better with Social Media, Study

A common sense conclusion from a marketing study, but it’s surprising when you consider the source. Small businesses are more successful in an e-mail marketing campaign if they combine it with social media, according to a 2011 study by e-mail marketing firm Constant Contact.

Constant Contact says companies using the two-pronged approach net a 14 percent increase in their e-mail list vis-à-vis 9 percent for just e-mail by itself.

Businesses that combined the two strategies experience 53 percent larger e-mail lists.

More importantly, the click-through rates are higher, says the company, which has 450,ooo customers.

“Small businesses are always asking us, ‘Email marketing or social media marketing? Which is the best use of my time and resources?’ In fact, it’s not either/or; it’s both. Use email to communicate with your current customers and social media to reach new customers,” said Rick Jensen, chief sales and marketing officer for Constant Contact.

“The average click-through rate for those using both email and social media marketing was 59.3 basis points higher than for those using email only,” he said.

When Mr. Jensen released the results of the study, he offered a guarantee.

“We’ve created a playbook to help our customers get started and be successful with email and social – fast. We already know our email marketing provides superior results, and we’re so confident that this combination will deliver even more success that we’re guaranteeing results,” he said.

The study’s results make sense. An integrated approach should make it easier to engage customers. While this column probably makes me appear as a cheerleader for Constant Contact, no worries, as I’ve never done business with the firm. The guarantee is intriguing.

On average, in my experience, buying decisions are made after the customer receives five positive messages. Social media helps a company branding.  It sets the stage. It seems logical that an e-mail campaign would be more effective if complemented by social media – once the five message threshold is achieved.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s more on digital-age marketing: The Key to Internet Dominance: Think Integration.

“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
-Mark Twain

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

E-Mail Marketers Plan to Greatly Increase Use of Videos, New Study

March 2, 2010

You can expect to see a lot more videos in your e-mail. Marketers plan a major expansion in their use of videos in e-mails, according to a report in Website Magazine. The magazine quotes a study by Getresponse.com.

The Getresponse suvey indicates 80 percent of respondents will insert videos in 2010. In 2009, only 15.7 percent used videos.

Sixty-five percent of e-mail marketers feel that such videos are effective. Sixty-four percent of such marketers now using videos say videos result in more sales.

Common uses of videos: Customer testimonials, product demos, product offers, and training courses.

You can see the report at GetResponse.

From the Coach’s Corner, I don’t believe the study by Gertresponse is too self-serving. It’s getting more and more challenging to reach consumers. Note this column: Of Interest to Web Publishers, Videos Continue Surge in Popularity.

For an overview of how to overcome consumer overload, see: Marketing Strategies to Cut Through the Clutter.