Now many Social media “experts” including Facebook’s COO have declared that email is dead and social media will takes it place. Ben and Jerry’s in UK dropped their email campaigns in favor of social media.
Is email really dead? Is it a question of either or will both exist going forward?

Email is Still Alive

Few recent studies show that email is not dead (yet). According to an article by eMarketer, email still drives shopping over social. 37% of the shoppers prefer email as the promotion delivery method while only 9% prefer social. Considering that social media (online social media in its current state) is still in infancy these numbers are great but this also shows that email is not dead yet.

According to ExactTarget’s “Subscribers, Fans and Followers” report, most internet users engaged with brands only via marketing emails. They also found that there is significant overlap between the three channels and vast majority of social media fans or followers were also email subscribers. Nearly a third subscribed to emails in addition to being fans of brands on Facebook. (Source: How Are Email, Facebook and Twitter Audiences Different?

Considering that both email and social media are important, many marketers are using the power of email to spread the word about their social media presence. Two-thirds of the marketers surveyed by eROI say that they are integrating social media into email.

Conclusion

For now, email and social are co-existing. I suggest that you start integrating your social media into email campaigns if you are not already doing it. Every customer segment behaves differently and you need to look at your own data rather than reply on some social media expert’s advice to draw any further conclusions.

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“Consumers are turning to Facebook and Twitter to show support for their favorite brands. However, when it comes to on-going deals, email remains the channel of choice.”

Highlights of the study include:

*81 percent of consumers that receive email marketing messages have been motivated to provide a company with their email address due to some form of promotion.

*Millennials (consumers age 15 to 24) are twice as likely to subscribe to email (56 percent) in search of on-going deals as they are to search for deals on Facebook (28 percent).

*88 percent of women indicate that promotions have motivated them to subscribe to email marketing messages, compared to 70 percent of men.

*65 percent of women have subscribed to email marketing messages in return for a “free” product, compared to 44 percent of men.

“This research provides new insight into why consumers of all ages are increasingly turning to email to interact with companies amid the explosive growth of social media,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer.

“Consumers identified several X-factors that keep them engaging with companies through email, including privacy, their ability to receive exclusive and targeted content and the ability to respond at their leisure.”

When they wake up, 59% of consumers check their email account before anything else online, according to new research from ExactTarget (disclosure: client), in a sweeping survey of 400+ Americans. (play with the data in the super cool interactive tool below)

This correlates well with a similar, but far less statistically rigorous poll I conducted one year ago asking Twitter users what they checked first in the morning, and email was preferred by 77%.

The full ExactTarget research is available for free here, and includes several other interesting discoveries:

• People who check email first tend to be motivated to interact with brands online for the sake of deals (why you need a deal before you’ve even had coffee, I’m not sure)
• People who check Facebook first (11% of total respondents) tend to become fans of brands for entertainment purposes, or to show support (the concept of social badging).
• 39% of the people that check email first still use Facebook daily, but their motivation for doing so remains deal-centric.

Moo. Don’t Treat Fans Like Cattle

To me, the key insight is less about who checks what first (although it would be interesting to see the impact of smart phone ownership on the results). The key insight is instead the fact that motivations for brand interaction are widely divergent. You cannot presume that your subscribers, fans, or followers pay attention to your brand for reasons that are anywhere close to homogenous. They are not a faceless heard. They have motivations that are specific, particular and important.

This has enormous implications for social segmentation, content creation, tonality, and appropriate success metrics. We all need to start thinking about how we can mine social and email data to create not just one list of subscribers/fans/followers, but multiple lists based on what people want from our brands, and how likely they are to respond to information of a particular type and context. If we’re not using the available data (made even richer by the coming ubiquity of “like”) to boost relevancy of our social and email communication, our fans will gravitate toward companies that are. Because relevancy = respect.

For many companies (but by no means all), “batch and blast” email whereby everyone on the subscriber list gets the same message is a thing of the past. It’s time to start thinking about social media the same way. Programs like ThinkGeek‘s @thinkgeekspam that includes only deals and offers may need to become the rule, not the exception.

I’m going to write more about my thinking in the area of social segmentation this summer, but for now what do you think?

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“Emails that included at least three social sharing icons generated over 55 percent higher CTR than messages without any sharing options.”

So, including links to social media provides a higher CTR, but how many marketers are actually adopting the practice?

60% of emails linked to at least 1 network

26% linked to 2 networks

8% to 3 networks

6% to 4 or 5 networks

Twitter was found to be the most used sharing option, with 67% of all emails with a social link having one directed to Twitter. Facebook was right behind, at 62%. Not surprisingly, Twitter also showed the best click-through rate at 10%.

For people who added more than 1 link or sharing icon, they enjoyed a higher CTR as well. With 3 or more links, the CTR increased to 11%, while having only 1 link showed an 8% CTR. Not having a social link at all dropped CTR to 7%.

These statistics are definitely worth pondering over, if you’ve been deciding whether to introduce social linking in your newsletters. There will still be detractors who see social and email as completely different worlds, but these people obviously don’t have the facts. Adding a social element doesn’t guarantee you greater success, but with evidence of higher CTR it certainly doesn’t hurt.

With the tool, you’ll be able to preview emails by viewing them from an iPad aspect. This allows to correct any mistakes and search for a solution to optimizing for iPad devices. Considering the screen of the iPad is so much different than other small mobile screens, this tool could provide a valuable use.

Within twenty days, Apple sold a million iPads. The number has grown quite a bit since, and will continue to expand. Instead of waiting to see what happens, taking charge might give you a boost needed for email opens.

Michelle Eichner, vice president, product management said this about the new addition, “We’re hearing from a lot of smart marketers who want to leverage the rich email capabilities of the iPad; its video-enabled inbox is ideal for delivering effective email communications.”

“But different screen sizes present new rendering issues, which marketers must consider; this makes optimization so much more important in order to ensure brand continuity.”

Pivotal Veracity has also provided a preview of how emails should look on the iPad,which you can find here.

Email marketing will continue to evolve, and it’s vital that you do so along with it. Ignoring the iPad will do nothing but keep potential customers from being made aware of your newsletters. The balance between optimizing for standard devices and the mobile variety, is a hard task. Taking advantage of different optimizing tools is an option worth looking into.

Bryan Eisenberg recently put together a list of seven tips, and we’re going to whittle it down further to four.  The first of which is this: “Acquire subscribers at seducible moments.”  Grab them after checkout, for example, rather than interrupting the actual purchase process when people are intent on something else.

Next, “Offer a bribe.”  Nothing motivates the average person quite like a deal or free stuff, and if you emphasize the bargain by stressing how much the product costs under other circumstances, you’ll create a stronger incentive to sign up for the newsletter.

Another tip is to cater to different segments of a population, since not everyone will be interested in the same thing.  Or to be more specific: even if a large number of people own the same truck, some of them might just use it as a daily driver, while others may regularly haul things and still others could try to slather it with decals and chrome.

Finally, Eisenberg suggested, “Ensure your e-mail preview is engaging,” meaning that you should check what your email looks like before someone clicks the “Show Images” button.  A smattering of empty boxes featuring red Xs isn’t appealing.

Anyway, follow this advice, and hopefully you’ll see gains that are impressive to the point you won’t have to worry about shades of blue and a pixel here and there.

The email-to-speech feature gives small business marketers a new tool to improve email response rates, fight inbox fatigue, and make their brands stand out among today’s increasingly mobile, multi-tasking audiences.

GetResponse Email-to-Speech Feature Highlights:
· Requires no set up, installation, or maintenance.
· Easy to add using the GetResponse WYSIWYG editor.
· Clear, natural-sounding voice provided by IVONA Text-to-Speech.
· Recipients just click “Play” to listen, or ignore to read.
· Accessible on mobile phones with MP3 capability.
· No impact on file size for hassle-free deliverability.

“GetResponse Email-to-Speech takes us one step closer to transforming email into a rich media experience, similar to listening to satellite radio or watching TV,” said Simon Grabowski, CEO of Implix and founder of GetResponse.

“Today’s Internet users are media-savvy multi-taskers, with almost 35 percent using the Web and watching TV, while juggling work, social networking, online shopping and, unfortunately, inbox clutter. GetResponse Email-to-Speech lets SMB marketers deliver a more personal, ‘human-like’ email experience, providing a real competitive edge. And, because it’s hands-free and accessible on mobile devices, multi-tasking users can easily and safely respond to our customers’ campaigns at home, in the car, wherever they are!”

“We are seeing that social media channels show even better marketing results when they are integrated with an email newsletter program.”

While online information channels have grown from social networking sites such as Twitter to blogs, the email inbox is still a valued target for content producers and marketers.

The ENRC helps publishers navigate the changing world of email newsletters by providing publishers with resources, books, tools and how to information on topics such as acquiring subscribers, developing content strategies, selling advertising and sending to mobile devices.

The ENRC will also conduct industry surveys and share results with its audience. The first survey about integrating email newsletters and social media will launch later this month.

For advertisers, e-newsletters.com provides best practices on creating placing and tracking advertising results. The ENRC is also developing a listing of advertising opportunities in email newsletters by niche target market.

If people are using their email accounts to connect within their social portals, your newsletters must reflect this change. The Green Party hasrecently announced an email marketing campaign they’re running alongside their social presence. The details of the campaign haven’t been fully disclosed, though I’d wager a more newsletter styled campaign will be the way to go.

Here’s what The Green Party hopes to accomplish with their email plans, “The Green Party is set to launch a large-scale email marketing campaign to draw support ahead of the upcoming general election, it has been reported. According to the Telegraph, the party, which is seeking its first MP, will use the channel alongside social media to attract additional voters in key constituencies. It is promoting an interactive party political broadcast that supporters can email to their family and friends living in key target areas.”

When it comes to newsletter styled campaigns, I think the integration of social media into email is a huge boon. The idea of a newsletter is to connect with readers, and present ideas they want to be a part of. With social media, many users connect with people, companies, and ideals to receive information. Which is the same concept which drives newsletters.

There are many who are looking upon social media as an email killer. If you follow recent trends, this doesn’t seem to be the case. With newsletter based email marketing, you must simply adapt to the trends in order to survive.

But I’m still amazed at how many companies “get” email marketing, yet still make missteps along the way.

Here’s a good example. I fly a lot. And it’s been wonderful to be able to access email and the web when we’re soaring along at 30K feet. This year I’m mostly flying Delta because of project location and their inflight WIFI is with GoGo Inflight.

Service with GoGo can be purchased per flight, for a 24 hour period or with a 30-day pass. I get the 30-day pass because it’s the most economical for my needs. So I was happy to get an email reminder that my current 30-day pass was expiring.

But here’s the problem. There wasn’t a single link in the email that would allow me to click through to their website. Oops.

That’s a mistake you can prevent in your email marketing. Make sure you think about your message from the customer’s perspective — what message you want them to understand and what action you want them to take. It will help you get better results and might just create some raving fans in the process.

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In this article I thought I’d quickly show you how you can apply that same technique toward tracking of email campaigns as visitors have asked this as well.

Remember, generally Google Analytics looks for a few basic values in each link (yes you can track more items, but these are the basics.) The three basic pieces of information Google looks for in links is the campaign source, campaign medium and campaign name. The actual Google variable representations are listed below as a refresher but I have included some text that will help you from the email perspective.

1. Campaign Source (utm_source). This identifies the name of your email marketing system, such as ConstantContact. If you don’t use a thirds party email marketing system, you can label your campaign source something general like ‘Email Marketing’.

2. Campaign Medium (utm_medium). This identifies the campaign instrument used. In the case of email marketing, your medium is ‘email’.

3. Campaign Name (utm_campaign). This identifies the name of your campaign. The Campaign Name helps you differentiate between various campaigns or unique messages within each. Most Email Marketers use their message subject line or other identifying value for this parameter.

Here’s what the URL Builder might look like with those three variables filled in for an Email campaign:

Viewing Email Campaign Results

Once you have built your url and inserted it into the proper location within your email, tracking will automatically begin. With the tracking results you can find out a number of things including: which links were most popular with your recipients, when they visited your website, how long they stayed and where they navigated following arrival.

With this information you can refine your future email marketing to gain better results.

How to view campaign results in Analytics:

1. Log into your Google Analytics account.

2. Click ‘Traffic Sources’ from your Dashboard.

3. View your ‘Top Traffic Sources’ or click ‘View Full Report’ to see all traffic sources.

4. Locate and click the link identifying your email marketing Campaign Source. In our example above, your Campaign Source is your email marketing product, i.e. ConstantContact, or ‘Email Marketing’.

On your Campaign Source page, Google Analytics provides details on the number of visitors generated by your campaign, the number of pages they visited, average time on your website, percent of new visitors to your website and the average bounce rate.

Campaign managers can also drill-down using the segments drop-down menu. This provides even greater detail on individual campaigns, keywords, geographic regions, browser types, operating systems and visitor activity, like the most popular landing and exit pages. Each results page provides the means to drill-down even further and fine-tune your data.

Here is what the top level report might look like when segmented by ‘Source’ in Google Analytics:

Here is what the top level report might look like when segmented by ‘Medium’ in Google Analytics:

Here is what the top level report might look like when segmented by ‘Campaign’ in Google Analytics:

To get more detailed information on each you can further filter, segment, etc… and even drill down by clicking the link to the page you want to see more information on.

Now, if you haven’t had the ability to do so already, you can get better metrics from your email campaigns within Google Analytics.

Got any other ideas for email tracking with GA? Post your ideas below. I’d like to hear them.

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