Commentary
Social Media To Get Email Marketing Support in 2010
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, July 9, 2010
A survey of small businesses by e-mail marketing company AWeber, recently reported by EMarketer, found the most common email tactics implemented last year were tweeting e-mail newsletters and sending out blog entries to e-mail lists. Fewer than four in 10 small businesses were engaging in those activities, and only about one-quarter had e-mail sign-up forms on their social profiles or links within e-mail messages to follow them on social sites.
U.S. Social Media Tactics Integrated With Email Marketing by Small Business in 2009 (% of Respondents) | |
Marketing Tactic | % of Respondents |
Tweet email newsletters | 36.01% |
Broadcast blog entries to email list | 35.14 |
Add sign-up forms on social media pages | 25.38 |
Include follow links in email messages | 23.56 |
Place link to email in social media pages | 20.05 |
Include share option in email messges | 13.10 |
None | 31.87 |
Source: AWeberE-Mail Marketing Customer Survey/eMarketer, June 2010 | |
More than three-quarters of small business respondents consider integration of e-mail and social at least somewhat important for 2010. A majority of the respondents plan to allow users to sign up for e-mails directly from social media sites like Facebook. This tactic allows e-mail marketers to grow their lists, the top benefit of integrating social and e-mail for one-third of respondents, by allowing consumers to use their channel of choice and sign up on their own terms.
Planned Integration of Social Media and Email Marketing Campaigns by Small Business in 2010 (% of Respondents) | |
Marketing Tactic | % Planning to Integrate |
Add sign-up forms on social media pages | 54.12 |
Broadcast blog entries to email list | 46.91 |
Include follow links in email messages | 46.87 |
Include share option in email messages | 43.89 |
Tweet email newsletters | 42.33 |
None | 12.66 |
Source: AWeberE-Mail Marketing Customer Survey/eMarketer, June 2010 | |
Importantly,almost one-half of small businesses will include "follow us" links in their e-mails, and about 44% will include share options in their messages. Just 13.1% of respondents had such options last year, says the report.
And from the MarketingSherpa 2010 Email Benchmark Report, marketers are pleased with the social media influence on email programs.
Marketer Response to Social Media Impact on Email Programs (% of Respondents) | |||
| Perception of Tactic Benefit | ||
Expected Benefit | Agree | Disagree | Not Sure |
Extends reach of email content to new markets | 81% | 3% | 16% |
Increases brand reputation and awareness | 78 | 3 | 19 |
Increases ROI of email programs | 53 | 7 | 40 |
Accelerates the growth of email lists | 47 | 10 | 43 |
Generates more qualified leads | 31 | 13 | 57 |
Source: MarketingSherpa, July-August 2009 | |||
According to a study by e-mail marketing company, GetResponse,
including a social sharing option in an e-mail increased their clients' click-through rates from an average of 7.2% to 8.7%, and including as many as three different sharing options boosted the rate to 11.2%.
Please visit here to view the eMarketer report
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
This is very interesting - I recently read a story that mom bloggers prefer e-mail pitches to blog comments.
Thank you,
Ellen Lebowitz