Has Social Media Killed Email Marketing?

If you are responsible for selling, you probably have days where you think, “Am I ever going to connect with someone who can buy from me?” Do you rely heavily on social media and your website to “get the word out?” You’ve probably seen blog posts and articles saying email is dead so you don’t regularly email your contacts. I don’t hold to that opinion, as you may have figured if you’re on my email list! Here are 2 reasons why I don’t buy into the “email is dead” message.

First, social media for businesses can be like turning the nozzle on a spray bottle until it says “spray.” Your message goes out like a fine mist with very little control about where it lands. Yes, you have followers and yes, you can use targeted advertising and there are better and better tools coming out all the time. But, you are still at the whim of another organization’s algorithms. Overnight changes in policy can mean loss of revenue for you if you’re depending on it exclusively to reach buyers. 

Second, people drop off of social media for a variety of reasons everyday, and, while those reasons are probably unrelated to your business, your connection with them is a casualty of the situation. In fact, at any time any one of those social media companies could just cease to exist.

In contrast, your email list is your property. You own it. You curate it. You are not left to the whims of others in the ways you connect with that list. Email marketing lets your prospects and customers read your messages when they want to, on their own schedule, without losing you in their feed. Your emails don’t have to be anything fancy (unless you want them to be). Just show your buyer that you understand their needs and have a solution to their problems.