Email Still Rocks! Social, Surprisingly, Stinks!

At conversions. Email rocks at conversions.

And despite all the hype associated with Facebook and Twitter, and massive amount of funds that most companies have allocated to social in their quest for magical money, sadly the impact on economic outcomes remains disappointing.

In fact email conversion rates are nearly 40 times (!) that of Facebook and Twitter.

While Google+ was not covered in the study, it is likely that it delivers similar outcomes.

Lesson number one… Social is a terrible channel to pimp yourself and expect short term rewards in revenue or profitability terms. It is completely irrelevant, COMPLETELY, what your friendly neighborhood Social Media Guru says.

If your boss/spouse/angel believes the Guru, send them this post. It is on LinkedIn. It should carry a lot of authority. :)

Lesson number two… Email only works for people who understand the pure essence of permission marketing. It only works for people who execute a fabulous frequency (how often), recency (gap between two touch-points) and relevance (giving a lot of value in exchange for the occasional ask) strategy.

Oh, and it is incredibly measureable. Here’s my post with recommendations across your acquisition, behavior and outcome efforts: Email Marketing: Campaign Analysis, Metrics, Best Practices

As your chase shiny objects, don’t forget the original platform that empowered you to build sustainable relationships and owned audiences. #emailrocks

Lesson number three… Social was never meant to be a conversion driving channel. It was always silly to believe that pimping your company’s products and services on Facebook would lead to short-term revenue - but the social ecommerce hype was/is too strong.

The See-Think-Do content, marketing and measurement model dictates that social media platforms are fantastic at See and good at Think. But they massively stink at Do.

The reason is simple: Intent.

You don’t go to social platforms to buy, and only extremely rarely to research. You are there to reach out to people you have real (or fake!) relationships with, you are there to get updates on your digital or real world existences, and you are there to be entertained.

Brands can win on social platforms if they understand why you are there. If they provide you with entertainment, if they provide you with information you can share with your circles, and if they behave in an authentic manner they can earn a tiny smidgen of your love and attention (brand equity). Case in point: Innocent Drinks.

All that can translate into revenue over a long period of time. When you the customer are ready, not when the company is ready (Now! Now! Give me your money now!!!!).

The two questions the company should ask itself:

1. Are we inherently social?
2. Do we have the patience to invest in relationships now to build our brand equity on social platforms?

If the answer to both questions is yes, do social. If the answer to one or both questions is no, stay home. Your company is not going to go bankrupt because it does not do social.

Good luck.

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PS: If you want to incentivize the optimal behavior on social media by your company, here are the best social media metrics: Conversation, Amplification, Applause, Economic Value

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