I posted this earlier on another blog but it is about what this blog is all about: social media, email marketing and social email marketing. So here goes.
Back in November a survey, conducted by Harris Interactive for US-based Cost-per-Lead (CPL) advertising marketplace Pontiflex, showed that only 12% of online adults have provided their social networking information (such as a Twitter handle or Facebook username) to receive promotions from brands.
The trend is prevalent across diverse age groups: only 17% of online adults 18-34, 8% of 35-44 and 7% of 45-54 said that they would be willing to share social networking information with marketers.
However, the survey results also show that consumers are willing to opt-into advertising. For example, 96% of online adults who have provided information online to receive special offers or more information from companies have provided their email address.
Additionally, 73% of online adults said they would be more likely to make a purchase from a brand/company they have signed up with to receive special offers or more information from versus a brand they have not signed up to receive anything from and 68% are more likely to trust a brand they hear from often.
Email and later social media or social email marketing from the start?
According to Harris Interactive/Pontiflex, building a relationship in the social networking space is not very different from building a relationship in the real world: “Marketers like Kimberly-Clark, WecanSolveit.org and Blackberry begin by acquiring the email addresses of interested consumers.
Once marketers have built relationships and trust through email, they then engage consumers in relevant ways on social networking sites.”
The statistics provide evidence that marketers are better served by building a relationship with consumers via email before engaging them on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
Or maybe they should combine both and have a holistic social email marketing approach?
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