Email Marketing: The Best Way to Share Content

Every day there is a new fact, statistic, trend or study on how Facebook is taking over all forms of communication on the internet. Based on a recent survey, this is true for young Facebook users, but as age increases, so does the use of email for personal content sharing.
Further data also shows that the younger the user, the less likely they are to scale back the amount of what they are sharing to smaller groups. A 20-year-old is more likely to send forwarded messages to their entire network of “friends” on Facebook, regardless of whether the recipient would find it interesting. An older user is much more likely to forward a message to a targeted group of recipients who would benefit from or find the content valuable.

Corporate Messaging: Facebook vs. Email Campaigns

As social media use continues to grow with websites like Facebook leading the way, it is easy to see why companies are slacking with email marketing. Companies looking to expand their social media presence are beginning to create corporate pages and profiles on the social media giant Facebook. Although this is necessary, it must be done in the correct way.
Simply setting up a Facebook account to share the corporate message and interact with users is not enough, especially if your customer demographic falls in the age range of 35 and over. The segmented survey clearly shows that older users do not expect messages relevant to their businesses to be sent on a medium like Facebook.

The Right Path

Messages sent using an Online Marketing Studio are more likely to be read if they are sent in a way that reflects a personal email. Creating a customized email template with analytics and tracking built into the message is the key to targeting older customers. Looking at the ROI from social media campaigns is a constant struggle for many companies. A great way to measure ROI is to have links built into your email message, so if the user clicks on a Facebook icon and views your corporate page, you can verify how that user found you.

Working Together

We can create personalized Online Marketing Studios for companies as well as implement tracking for social media efforts. Do not let email marketing decrease because of the implementation of social media. What message will your company want to share first in 2011?