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The One Thing Most Social Media Marketers Forget [Plus Infographic]

Written by - 15 Comments
Categories: Email Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

Christmas only comes once a year and it is fun to see the children tear off the paper and unwrap their presents.

It is more like a destruction derby than a party! Paper, string and wrapping fly in all directions as the journey of toy discovery unfolds.The One Thing Most Social Media Marketers Forget [Plus Infographic]

Parents and grandparents watch the unfolding scenario like the Super Bowl or the Football World Cup, cheering from the sidelines.

The Christmas card and the “thank you”  is often forgotten and the focus is on discovering what exciting new present that Santa has delivered!

The toy is seized with shouts of glee and overt unbridled enthusiasm and for the next 10 minutes it is the centre of attention.

Soon the next toy is unwrapped and the now “old” toy is discarded, maybe to never be used again.

The Shiny New Toy Effect

Social media marketing is the “shiny new toy” and it has been unwrapped and it has us all enthralled and excited. The Facebook marketing, Twitter tweeting and YouTube videos have us running in all directions as  we play with the social networks trying to work out how to make it all work effectively.

Amongst all the social media glitter there is a one little marketing tool that should not be forgotten, in fact it should be embraced and integrated into the new social web.

The Humble Email

What shouldn’t be forgotten in the “Christmas Present Effect“, is that the user base of  email far exceeds Facebook with over 3 billion users.

The two major advantages that a business or organisation email database has over Facebook is ownership and control. You own your email database, it is yours and you can send it out anytime you like. You are not dependent on the Facebook “Edge Rank” that controls who sees your Facebook updates in the Facebook “Timeline”

One plus One Equals Three?

The savvy marketer should take the power of the email and combine it with the power of Facebook and social media to synergize the exponential power of sharing.

Recent research by Get Response, obtained by analyzing 2.2 billion emails sent by their customers, has revealed that including sharing buttons with emails can increase the email “Click Through Rate” (CTR) significantly.

  • The average click-through-rate (CTR) was 115% higher for emails that included any social link
  • 5.6% CTR for emails including social sharing icons
  • 2.6% CTR for those that do not include social sharing buttons

It actually looks like one plus one could actually equal four!

So have you socialized your email?

The Synergy of Email and Social Media

GetResponse Email Marketing and Social Media Infographic
Via: GetResponse Email Marketing

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Image by Adrian S Jones


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  • http://www.usefulgrahicdesigntutorials.com/ Caroline Jones

    Jeff – this is an interesting post, but could you clarify something for  me. Do you mean include Social Media buttons on general email or on emails that you would send subscribers to your list?

    If the latter, how would you do that?

  • http://twitter.com/LinkYeah Joel Windels

    Nice information, but why would you compare number of e-mails opened (10K) with number of FB shares/Twitter RTs? They’re not anything like the same thing. It should be a comparison of e-mail forwards with shares/RTs, or a comparison of emails opened and total number number of followers that see a tweet, for example – statistics that would actually skew the data in the opposite direction, to less favour e-mails.

    Regardless, I agree with the sentiment that email marketing is essential to maintain and neglecting the humble email to focus purely on social media is a perilous undertaking. A synergy between all distribution channels is a must in this field. 

  • http://cashwithatrueconscience.com/rbblog Ryan Biddulph

    Hi Jeff,

    I like the synergy.

    Never forget the power of simple. Yep, many people still check their email before checking social sites. It’s a habit. Integrate social media and email to build an effective and comprehensive marketing campaign.

    Thanks for sharing with us.

    RB

  • http://www.jatheon.com/email_archiving/index.php email archiving system

    Great post about true meaning of Christmas and how we tend to forget it. 

  • Madwilliamflint

    A couple good points but those infographics are positively awful at conveying information.

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  • http://www.callboxinc.com/ Julie Dawn Harris

    Thanks for some points you have put on Jeff!

    Email marketing is an indispensable marketing tool
    that should not be neglected by b2b marketers. If done right, coupled with the
    right tactics it will surely deliver great results. 

  • Anonymous

    I just wrote a post myself in which I discussed how email and social media are closely linked..one never replacing the other. This just goes to show their close knit nature and the benefits we can get. would love your thoughts on it jeff 
    http://www.nadirshah.com/the-perfect-digital-campaign-7-tips-on-how-to-set-it-up/

  • Anonymous

    I just wrote a post myself in which I discussed how email and social media are closely linked..one never replacing the other. This just goes to show their close knit nature and the benefits we can get. would love your thoughts on it jeff 
    http://www.nadirshah.com/the-perfect-digital-campaign-7-tips-on-how-to-set-it-up/

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  • http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/exit.html?link=http://www.articleteller.com.au article writing

    Nice presentation for the infographics. Spot on with this write-up, I really think this amazing site needs a lot more attention. I’ll probably be back again to read more, thanks for the info!

  • Christa

    Cool post Jeff, just one question about this point:

    “Click Through Rate” (CTR) significantly.The average click-through-rate (CTR) was 115% higher for emails that included any social link

    Do you mean clicking on the social link/opening the email itself? I’m not sure why people would open emails more just because they had social sharing links in them.

    Thanks for the interesting infographic.

  • http://twitter.com/Thatvideomag Thatvideomagazine

    Another forgotten form of social media marketing is event marketing. What is more social than that? It’s great for:

    - Building databases through ticket sales for email marketing
    - Great for content and social media marketing
    - Readily available to most businesses with some planning
    - Network with potential and loyal customers

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