There’s been a growing conversation lately asking the question what offers a stronger Return on Investment (ROI), email marketing or social marketing (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)? Even Nielsen Online, an industry monitoring group, has been hot on the trail trying to get to the heart of the conversation by measuring the comparison.
In fact, “two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, accounting for almost 10% of all internet time,” according to a new Nielsen report.
Ok here’s the deal: If you’re a small business out there looking to do marketing online, you should pay attention to this report with a slight case of amnesia. Know it exists, but don’t be too quick to buy into the hype because the bottom line is you need to build a marketing program that reaches your audience. Some small businesses will need to focus on email marketing while others may need to have more of a social marketing aspect. Oh, by the way, there will even be times when you want to integrate both methods.
So there’s a big conversation on which one is better. Here’s what I say - Who cares!? They both serve your audiences in their own way.
The best way to figure out where to start is to truly identify, study and understand your customer. In fact, some marketing campaigns will want to have a significant mobile marketing and messaging component while others will be more direct response focused. It all depends on your customer and it’s also a big part of understanding marketing.
So figure out your customer and realize what method influences and motivates their buying behavior. That’s always the best method, no matter what Nielsen has to say about it. Here’s a fantastic book you can read to help you develop better email campaigns: The Complete Guide to E-mail Marketing
Have you had different results using email marketing vs. social marketing? Tell us about it here.
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