April 3

Dropping email for Facebook…WOW

11  comments

Had a call earlier this week that I HAD to share with you. It went something like this:

Company: Hey Brad, I’ve been reading about how Facebook could replace email marketing and I wanted to get your opinion about it…

Brad: ARE YOU HIGH!?!

C: Huh??

B: You’re telling me you want to stop using your 50k email list in favor of Facebook…??

C: Yeah, I mean not right away, but if we can get 50k fans then we can make more money.

==

OK, so maybe I’m preaching to the choir here, but does anyone else think of this as crazy?

Is this what people think social media is? Dropping things that are proven for things that are the new fad? Granted, Facebook can be a useful tool, but thinking it can replace the direct communication that email provides is NUTS!!

Two Senerios…

A. If you’re a fan of a Facebook page, they post something at 1pm that’s AWESOME! I don’t care what it is, but they post it at 1pm…but you don’t really check Facebook till you get home from work (ok believe the lie for a min)…and SHOCKER, it’s not at the top of your ‘news feed’. So that awesome post goes unnoticed by you…and countless others.

B. You’re on an email list of a company that sends you great material and they send their newsletter to you at 1pm. Let’s again lie here and say you don’t check your email till you get off work. You get home and you have 30 emails…but instead of that material getting lost in your news feed, you have it there to read (or not read)…AND IT’S BEING AT LEAST CONSIDERED!

Obviously you as a marketer, or someone interested in getting someone’s attention, would rather have them not read your material because of a bad subject line, vs not read because they don’t see it.

So clearly if you’re thinking about dropping your email marketing for Facebook…DON’T DO IT!! Climb off the ledge and consider other ways to improve your sales and conversions…

IMPROVE YOUR EMAIL MARKETING! Or at least your Subject lines. That’s really all that matters anyway.

What we’ve learned here is to not drop your email marketing, just improve it. Comment below if you think I’m wrong about Facebook VS Email…or if you just want to get your site in front of the thousands of readers go ahead!

Cheers,
Brad

P.S. If you need any help/advice with that just ask…I pride myself on high open rates 😉


Tags

email marketing, Facebook, facebook better then email, facebook good marketing tool, improving email open rates


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  • HI Brad,

    I noticed something in a test series I just did for an email optin email (driving recipients to an optin page)… that, YES, the subject line is of key importance (gets them to look at the body of the email), but what is equally important is that the content of the email is relevant to the subject line (no surprises).

    What you don’t want is to have an Subject line to be good because it’s shocking, or whatever, and gets people to open the email, but when they read the body, it’s either not shocking, or not relevant (totally) to what the subject line refers to. If it’s a mis-match, the recipient feels ‘had’ or ‘fooled’ and they feel you’ve wasted their time.

    It always comes down to knowing your audience and their desired and stating a pain or solution, or whatever in the subject line that’s relates to them and then DELIVER in the body, resulting in the click.

    Norman

  • Good post as usual Brad, and couldn´t be more true…

    But somehow, it doesn´t shock me…

    There´s always this “new big thing” going on everywhere, the “new” ´holy grail´..

    Sure, test new areas of marketing, new ideas and be infront of your customers wherever they are if you can..
    but never stop doing the ´basics´, whats proven again and again and again. People have claimed email marketing has been dead since 2003.

    People claim offline direct mail is dead — thats wrong too.

    You just have to be different than all the rest. provide value and live up to your promises

    Everything that give you a good ROI — keep doing it. End of story.

    • 100% right Runar! There will also be new trends, new this, new that, blah blah…that ALL can be used, but standing out and keeping your word is the key. Thanks buddy

  • Hey Brad,

    Thanks for the great post, and for the link to Norman, TheDisciplinedTrader. I’ll definitely check that out.

    Couldn’t agree more with what you said. Though of course…you can do both.

    I just got through writing a piece about how to improve your email marketing the other day: http://measuremarketingsuccess.blogspot.com/2011/03/purpose-of-control-in-split-testing.html. It talks about how to do what you recommend — improve your email marketing.

    Cheers,

    lu

    • Luisa, yes do get in with Norman as it’ll be a great promo for you.

      Also great read! You’re right about control and having hopping points. I like the ‘checking it off her list’ comment too, can’t tell you how many people I talk to that look at it this way instead of a continuous project!

  • Hey Brad,
    I’ve had the same problem with Facebook with all my clients: they can build a rapid list, but they’re more tire-kickers than buyers.

    Too many marketers keep getting caught up in the latest shiny social thing, and forget the fundamental fact:
    People go on social sites to keep in touch with people and have fun. They go to google to search for info. They use email for keeping up with both.

    So doesn’t it make sense to build relationships, and to offer info through email, which melds the best of both worlds?

    The trick is knowing how.

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