5 Reasons to Focus on Email Marketing
1. 21% Engagement > 1% Engagement
I realize social media has a certain snazzy, sexy, sparkly appeal. All those fun features! Which might seem fun at first until they become overwhelming when you realize you have to use ALL THE FEATURES ALL THE TIME to get your content seen on social. By contrast, email marketing still can’t even “do” video. But, when we look at the data (which is what I like to do even if it seems boring), the average open rate of emails across industries is 21%, whereas the average engagement rate (how often people like, share, or comment) of an Instagram post is 0.83%. Facebook is even worse at only 0.13% and Twitter is an abysmal 0.05%. You tell me - would you rather spend all your time and energy on fun Reels for less than 1% of people who follow you to engage with them? Or might it be more worth your while to type up an email, possibly add some photos to it, and have 20% of your subscribers read it?
But Sami, you say, I have more followers on Instagram than email subscribers… so shouldn’t I focus my energy there, where there are more people? Keep reading!
2. Email subscribers are 5x more likely to visit your website and 4x more likely to purchase from you.
Social media platforms make money the longer they can keep people on their platform, so they want to do just that: keep users within their platform. They don’t want to make it easy for you to send users to your website, and they don’t really care if users engage with your content, click on your links, or unfollow your account, as long as they’re continuously doom-scrolling and interacting with a lot of ads.
Email’s goal is for you to nurture your subscribers, have a more intimate relationship with them, and keep people from unsubscribing. Because email subscribers are more invested in hearing from you (they’ve willingly opted to allow you into their inbox, if you’re doing it right), they’re more interested in reading what you’ve sent them. When they elect to open an email from you, they spend more time looking at your content than they would if they were casually scrolling on social media. As a result, email subscribers are 5x more likely to visit your website and 4x more likely to purchase from you as compared to your social media followers.
3. You own your email audience. You do not own your social media audience.
2022 saw a record increase in spam bots on Instagram and accounts being hacked or shut down, often resulting in account owners being forced to create new accounts and build their following from scratch (!!!!). I saw this happen to many entrepreneurs and small businesses owner last year, some of them had hundreds of thousands of followers, some less than 1,000.
You do not own your audience on social media. If algorithms change, or your account is hacked, or the social media platform shuts down (remember Vine? MySpace? Google+?), you lose your audience on that platform. Not so with email marketing. Even if you move from one email marketing service to another (like, for instance, Constant Contact to MailChimp), the list of email addresses (subscribers) you have cultivated is yours to take with you.
4. People check their email multiple times a day.
Firstly, if a person has internet access, they have an email account. Not everyone has a Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, or Twitter account. And those who do have an email account (pretty much everyone) are checking their email multiple times a day, thanks to email on mobile devices. While many millennials check Instagram and TikTok a few times per day, it’s nowhere near as often as they open emails, and people are engaging with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter even less, often less than once a day or a few times a week at most.
5. Email ROI is 135x Social Media ROI
ROI or Return on Investment (how much money you make vs how much money you spend), is a great way to measure which of your marketing platforms has been most successful. On average, email generates an average ROI of $38 for every $1 spent. Advertising on social media, however, generates only $0.28 per $1 spent.
If you’re ready to put more energy into email marketing, join me for a FREE 5-week email series, Grow Your Audience with Email Marketing, kicking off Wednesday, February 1st.
You’ll receive one email from me every week for 5 weeks. Over 5 weeks, I’ll cover:
Why Email Marketing? Why email is a better way to engage potential and current clients/customers.
Getting Started with Email Marketing. Email terminology, do’s & don’ts, best practices, and email marketing services.
Building Your Email List. Tips on creating an email list and getting new subscribers.
What To Send Your Subscribers. Content tips for both service & product-based businesses, learning what automations & drip campaigns are.
Measuring Success in Email. Learn what metrics to track and how to test different subjects and content.
… All of this knowledge is totally free, because I want to help you succeed!
Learn more and sign up here!
