5 reasons why an EDM might be the solution to your social media marketing strategy

Let’s face it - everyone is on social media today. More pointedly, almost every business has a social media presence. The real question is: how effective is the average company’s social media marketing strategy?

Sure, businesses might be on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or whatever is trending in their industry but so what? Without an effective social media marketing strategy, these channels are probably just draining your resources while failing to bring in new customers. After all, social media is time consuming when done properly.

All things social media have really taken off in recent years and many businesses have simply tagged it onto their existing marketing strategy. Surprisingly, a lot of companies think about social media but many have the tendency to overlook a proven form of advertising that’s stood the test of time: EDMs or email marketing.

If you’ve been dedicating more and more resources to social media recently and haven’t quite seen the results you were hoping for, here are 5 reasons why an EDM just might be that missing piece of the puzzle you’ve been looking for all along.

#1: It’s cost-effective

Have you been experimenting with Facebook and Instagram ads? While this form of advertising may be cheaper than traditional methods, the costs still mount up. Especially if your ads aren’t hitting the mark and generating new customers. Once you’ve built up a reasonable email database (businesses tend to offer people a freebie that is of value in return for their email address), you’ve got a real opportunity to tap into and market to your database. Best of all, it’s absolutely free to do so! Most people can figure out how to send a simple EDM with the likes of MailChimp and other simple email marketing tools.

#2: It’s direct

Who doesn’t have a Smartphone these days? This means people are connected 24/7. Instead of competing with the crowd and noise online, EDMs see you reaching your customers directly. Experiment to find what works and what doesn’t but once you start getting the hang of your customer’s behavioural patterns, you can easily convert these leads into repeat customers.

#3: You can earn people’s trust

If you’re able to send a potential customer an email, that’s because they’ve given you their email address, which means your product or service interests them on some level. Email marketing is a great relationship building tool - sending out consistent emails will see people starting to expect messages from your business. A good email marketing strategy sees companies providing value to their customers - not adopting a sell, sell, sell approach. Experiment with the type of content you send (whitepapers, infographics, images etc) and email subject lines too - after all, this is what will determine if someone will actually open the email.

#4: Tracking and measuring is easy

As we always say: track and measure everything! With email marketing and the right tools, it’s easy to track open rates, sales conversions and patterns. When something doesn’t work, change it up because once you do find the right formula, it’ll work for you again and again.

#5: Reach

Who doesn’t have an email address? Every now and again, you’ll come across someone without a Facebook or Instagram account but almost everyone has an email address. Even those who aren’t tech-savvy. This means that email’s reach is massive and shouldn’t be overlooked.

While we are chatting about all things email and email addresses, it’s incredibly important to note that if you’re sending people emails without their permission to do so, you’re violating the Spam Act (and probably annoying people which is never helpful), which could land you in real trouble down the track.

Ultimately, if you get your email marketing/EDM strategy right, you’ll drive people across to your website and social media channels anyway. Once people have an interest in your products and services, think of social media as a continuation of the conversation. As another way to engage with your customers and interact across a variety of channels and platforms.

Want to talk more about EDMs and your social media marketing strategy? Our team has worked with numerous businesses in the past to assist them in generating fantastic results and return on investment (ROI). Contact us and let’s get started!

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