Email Still King Among Retailers

There’s little doubt that Facebook and Twitter have changed the face of social-media marketing. But one undeniable fact still remains: when it comes to driving retail sales, e-mail is still king.

Email’s stubborn refusal to die stems from its ability to re-invent itself and adapt to the needs of retailing. Gone are the boiler plate emails shot-gunned indiscriminately at wide swaths of demos. Emails are now increasingly tailored to specific customer niches. 

When it comes to sales per dollar spent, e-mail beats social-media advertising 3 to 1, according to the Direct Marketing Association. It’s no wonder retailers sent 19 percent more e-mails this year. 

 

Ted Wham, a vice president at Responsys Inc., a firm that helps companies build digital relationships with customers, admitted that social media is sexier than e-mail.  "But it depends on what's sexy to you," said Wham. "In my opinion, making a high profit rate and bringing in a lot of incremental dollars is very sexy."

 

While ComScore Inc. predicts record-breaking online sales as the year ends, the number of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers making purchases after clicking through from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube declined by at least 26 percent this year from 2011.  According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, “social sales” for both days amounted to less than 0.5 percent of online revenue.

Retailers are learning the value of fine turning message content and timing to specific demographics, or to previously purchased or viewed products and items left in virtual shopping carts. Another popular tactic: using e-mail as a "portal" to showcase ads across the internet. 

According to Responsys,major retailers sent subscribers an average of 211 promotional e-mails in 2012 compared with 177 in 2011. The big online retailers sent every subscriber 6.6 promotional emails on average during the week ending Dec. 21, 2012—a 4 percent jump from the previous week and up 16 percent year-over-year.

 

With more smartphones in the hands of consumers, emails are being read at an ever-accelerating pace. Retailers are also becoming better at data and web tracking. Improved logistics now allow retailers to process orders far more efficiently and deliver them to consumers’ doorsteps faster. This has allowed retailers to extend the online holiday shopping season.

Scott Stratten, business owner and author of Unmarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, has over 117,000 Twitter followers, but admits that followers and “likes” aren’t worth as much as an email subscriber. Stratten advises businesses to pick one social media option (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+) and put time into it. That said, he emphasizes that business owners shouldn’t rely solely on social media.

Is social media sexier than email? Undoubtedly. But email has morphed from being “spammy” to remaining the king of retail—especially when it’s tightly focused and backed by demo research. 

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