Does the fact that you can create a Fan Page, a group for your company, cafe or event, especially on social media sites like Facebook – helping to make email marketing irrelevant?
How email marketing typically works
The success of email marketing is based on permission, you can ask and receive permission from people who visit your website, store or event to give you their names and email addresses, so you can keep in contact with them. With them saying yes and signing up via an email capture form on your site or writing in a book, you now have permission to keep them informed about sales, new product/services and upcoming events. A relationship has been formed. You are expecting to send them information, they are expecting to hear from you. To email them, you may choose to use services such as mailbuild.com which has a charge however minimal or you can use local email marketing providers like one in Jamaica, Jamaicalifestyle.com and they charge US$100 to push your message to their mailing list. There are many others who just use their free email from yahoo or gmail, load up their tens, or hundreds of email addresses and click send.Hey it’s free, and there isn’t a need to know if the email bounced or is still valid, was opened, clicked or passed along-features a paid service like mailbuild.com gives. BUT.
And now there is Facebook,Twitter
With the advent of social networking sites and facilities like Facebook and Twitter, this enables you to build a list of interested fans, followers and group members. Here again they have decided to come a fan, to follow you, to become a member of your group. Again a relationship has been formed. At this time Facebook and Twitter is free to send messages to your Fans, to group members and to followers. They have gone further and are now offering you the same features as some email marketing services providers do-information on who your fans, group members and followers are via e.g. Facebook’s insight’s feature which culls demographic and geolocation data. Very valuable.
So given where we are coming from – email lists and email marketing service providers to now the social web and it’s features of building fans and followers, is email marketing on a slippery slop to becoming irrelevant?
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yes email’s still relevant imho because not everybody is on facebook, twitter etc.
@Sandor. So you’re saying for some email marketing may still be relevant and for others no- just depends on your target market and where they are.
Lets say I am a busy 30 something year old business man, with children and wife to give my attention to when I go home. I may only be able to check my facebook or twitter account once a week, if that much. However, I may quickly eye-ball the subject line of my emails each day, to see if there is anything interesting there.
Hmmm….
Sound like I am talking about myself.
Ownership is the keyword for me. Let’s say they kick me off one of these social media sites or one of them goes under. The subscribers on their platform cannot be transferred. If I have a substantial emailing list, this continues to be a valuable part of the business. It is mines and can be used for as long as I like.
@Orlando. This is what I’m talking about. Yes, glad you make this excellent point. So you are referring to the portability of your list. WHo knows maybe that will come later with FB and Twitter. As Ning.com has a function which allows you to download your social networking site’s membership list and all the date you collected in the signup form you tailored in the set up stage.
yeah, i worked on a facebook project where we accumulated almost 500 followers. facebook changed their rules and deleted my client’s page. we lost all our followers. after haggling and pleading with facebook, they were able to reinstate about 20% of our followers on our new page. the policy changes they rolled out seemed without warning (and totally ridiculous) …it was a good lesson.
as with anything these days, we must take a multi-pronged approach to be as effective as possible.
@ Suzette, thank you for that real life example. @Ingrid, yes the list has to be portable and this has been the life blood for us @ DancehallSoca. For the past 6 years I have steadily built my mailing list. I also back it up using CSV format.
Do not be too quick to discount email lists and email marketing service providers Facebook and Twitter use e-mails to let you know when people are out to get you, without it they could not do their magic.
toymaker@parodicegames.com
MediaPost Publications 140 Characters In Search Of Your Email Content 06/15/2009
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=107905
Diversification is the key.. Get the right mix and what good for the goose not good for the gander