With all of the shiny new tools out there, many of our small business clients ask whether they still need use email marketing to reach their communities and audiences.  A few months ago, I would have said “yes”, but not as emphatically as I say it now.  A few months ago, I would have spouted off something about how your clients, influencers, and potential clients like to receive their information in different ways.  Not everyone is going to be on Facebook, reading your blog, etc. but they might actually like to hear from you by email.  I believe that this is still the case, however now we have some metrics to back it up.

Last week at the Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius conference in New York, Olivier Blanchard from The BrandBuilder not only gave an incredibly robust presentation on determining ROI from social media efforts but he also gave a REAL LIFE (these exist!) example of a small business who used different digital and print avenues to promote his business.

From Olivier’s presentation:

Example of spend justification — A retailer suspected his print advertising wasn’t helping. 90% of spend was on print, 10% was on email, blog, and in-store. We embedded unique promo codes in each channel. We did sales as tests. We didn’t need to measure all the time, just slivers of time. Of all promo codes, 4% of sales came from print, 69% came from email, 17% came from Facebook, and 10% came from web and blog.

In our own experience, we have also found that our clients have highest direct sales from email marketing compared to other platforms.  One of the design firms that we work with in Montana held a large sale on all furnishings from one of its manufacturers.  The firm printed and mailed postcards about the sale and….crickets.  For the same sale, we developed an email marketing campaign as well.  At least three large furnishing purchases were attributed directly to the buyers receiving the emails (side note: margins on furniture are large). Emails are sharable too.  For your list of 500, you may reach 1,000 when people forward on something good to their friends. That’s much more difficult with a hard copy mailer.

By what I’ve written in this post, I would imagine that several of you are thinking- “Well then why do we waste our time with Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and the other things that are about to make my brain explode?  Why not just put all of our resources into email marketing if we want to make more money?”  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, vlogging, etc. are important for the new way that we, as consumers and as sellers interact; we expect that interaction and it’s an important fundamental piece of our new marketplace.  On the digital marketing scale, email marketing is much less conversational. Conversations are important in building the bridges for future sales and future brand development.  Don’t give up on the other platforms, but especially don’t think that email marketing is now obsolete.  Just like each of the other tools, it has its place in your tool belt.

Author: Alexandra Gibson

Alexandra is the CEO of Gibson Design Management and Managing Partner of interior design firm, Gibson Design Group. When she's not busy trying to build an empire, you can find Alexandra riding a horse, giving back to the community, playing with her Scottie, McCord, or drinking a martini (preferably not all four at once).

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Tags: Blogging, email, Email Marketing, Facebook, Gibson Design Management, olivier blanchard, supergenius, Technology, thebrandbuilder, Twitter, word of mouth, Word of Mouth Marketing