Study: Email Conversion Rates Outperform Social Media by 40X

Today, it's become popular for marketers to bash email while singing the praises of social media. This Huffington Post article highlights some stats that reinforce the fact that email is still a powerful business tool, and can certainly hold it's own against social media. For example, a recent study by McKinsey and Company explains why this view is entirely wrong. According to the firm, email outperforms social media in terms of conversion rates by 40X.

The Direct Marketing Association reports that email is the most effective marketing channel out there. 

Despite a lot of hype around marketing on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, a study by The Direct Marketing Association reports that email marketing ROI is 43 cents for every dollar spent, making it the best marketing tool out there.

Social media channels are a great way to grab attention and draw people to your website, but it’s not until they’re on your email list that you will be making any sales. Social media may generate leads because of its ability to reach a wide audience. Email marketing generates sales because with it, you can nurture those leads.

Customized emails drive more revenue than broadcast emails.

According to Jupiter Research, personalized emails drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails. Furthermore, click-though rates increase by 14% and conversion rates by 10% when emails are personalized according to The Aberdeen Group. This is because people want to be connected with the products they actually like. Unlike social media, emails can be specifically tailored to your subscribers.

If you want to target your audience, use the business data about your subscribers and break email addresses up into groups by gender, age, last purchase, how often they open your emails and send out customized emails out accordingly. People will be much more likely to open your next email if they aren’t receiving emails about products they have no desire for. 

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Although it’s true that email culture has changed due to the rise of social media and the protectiveness over spam and unwanted emails in people’s inboxes, if you link the right emails with the right customers at the right time, there is no better way to keep your customers engaged and buying your service or product. 

Do you think social media is disrupting the email marketing space, or just providing another channel for attracting customers? Let us know in the comment section below.