There are so many ways to reach prospects and customers today. But which path is best for business?
Facebook, as you may have heard, is busy reinventing advertising. Is that the path brands want/need to travel?
Signs point to no.
According to Jay Baer of Convince and Convert, the more companies use social media channels to sell, the less they sell.
Baer points to new research from ExactTarget. In their “2012 Channel Preferences Study” 1,500 Americans ages 15 and older were asked about their usage of email, social media, and text messaging.
“Email is thriving thanks in large part to the channel’s familiarity, flexibility, and universality,” the report says.
Even for companies that we have given permission to send us offers (not Spam), only 4% of us prefer those messages to be delivered via Facebook, and just 1% via Twitter. Whereas, 77% of us prefer offers to be delivered via email and 44% would look to email first to find a deal.
So, stop worrying how your campaign will play out on Tweetbook, and start figuring out how it will be received in your prospect’s inbox.
Nate Elliott of Forrester adds another log to this fire: “I think the main reason marketers still struggle to make social pay is simple: They overestimate social media as a marketing tool.”