Why Email Segmentation is Still More Effective Than Social Media Marketing in 2022
Having a growing and properly managed email list is one of the most powerful tools you can have in digital marketing.
Unfortunately, many businesses lack the understanding of how to properly manage their email lists.
So why is email marketing more effective than social media marketing in 2019?
The answer is simple – the ability to segment your audiences.
Why is Segmentation in Digital Marketing so Important?
Effective marketing is all about pitching the right products to the right people at the right time.
This is one of the most important things you need to understand to get the most out of your digital marketing efforts.
When someone unsubscribes from your email list or unfollows you on social media; this means you didn’t properly market to them based on what they were looking for or what they would have been interested in.
An analogy is instead of aiming a dart at a specific part of a dartboard, you threw it with no aim – randomly hoping for the best result.
Some of you might do that now but I can tell you – it’s not as effective!
Most businesses fail to get 95% of their leads past the awareness stage into the consideration stage of marketing.
This means you are missing the mark and throwing money out the window.
Compared to organic social media marketing, email marketing is much better for setting up intelligent segmentations.
Here is an example of what an intelligent sequence looks like (contest marketing funnel).
One of your target segments should be people who are new to your list.
With this segment, you should focus on nurturing the leads over a period of time.
Here are examples of the types of emails people want to see when they are new to your list.
- Interesting Content/Information
- Links to Helpful Resources
- Testimonials
- Social Proof
- Value, value, value!
Sending these types of emails is what warming up your list up is all about.
Segmenting Customers
To get the most out of your list, customers should be sent completely different types of emails.
Many businesses miss out on opportunities to sell more to their current customers based on lack of product development, discounts, coupons, holiday trends, and other strategies that customers appreciate more in general compared to a prospect.
And that is why segmentation with digital marketing is so important.
With email marketing, we can set up sequences that personally speak to people…based on how they’ve interacted with us in the past.
We can’t do this as effectively with organic social media marketing.
How you speak to your leads, pitch them, recommend things to them and interact with them will highly influence the overall effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts.
Think about it…
If you pitched a high-ticket product to someone that just signed up for your newsletter, they would be turned off because they think you are just trying to sell them.
You are depriving them of value.
Even if they don’t unsubscribe – you’ve set a negative precedent.
People can lose interest without ever telling you.
If you haven’t done email segmentation before, you are likely doing one or all of these things.
- Turning off your prospects
- Not getting in front of customers enough with the right products and upsells
- Not connecting with various segments of your audience
Positive vs. Negative Digital Nurture
Here are potential thoughts of a prospect that you’ve set a negative precedent.
- Man…these guys email me a lot – I don’t like them.
- I would never buy from them…
- Oh there’s another email…definitely not opening that.
- I might consider in the future – if they stop emailing me so much!
- I’ve learned absolutely nothing from these people – they are just trying to pitch me.
This is why sending a general newsletter and/or random broadcast is much less effective than segmentation.
Segmentation allows people to connect with you personally.
Here are potential thoughts of a prospect if you set a positive precedent.
- I liked that blog they sent me – I learned something.
- Really cool videos!
- I love product A, B, C but it’s a little pricey – definitely excited when they put it on sale!
- These guys are great! They seem to really care and I feel they speak to me.
- Really impressed this company personally talked to me – I am a fan and soon to be a customer.
People respond positively when they feel valued.
Are you positively influencing their lives?
Are you identifying a problem and have an affordable solution?
Are you unique in what you offer and your value proposition?
Segmenting and nurturing prospects will lead to more trust, loyalty, and interest.
Simple as that…
And this is much harder to do through organic social media strategy.
Why is Social Media Marketing Less Effective Than Email Marketing?
Social media marketing is a great tool for your business.
If handled properly, it can push people efficiently down your sales funnel.
It’s a great way to nurture leads but if used too much as a direct sales tool, it will turn off many people and also the social network.
Have you ever noticed that organic posts on social media that point people to products on your website perform poorly?
This even happens (unfortunately) when you point people to your website in general…
Facebook’s algorithm knows how to identify if a post is overly promotional by how people are interacting with it.
Look at the image above – remember what people, in general, go to Social Media to do…
In general, many posts that have the purpose of direct selling (especially too early) will get hidden by followers.
Even marked as spam.
People go to social networks like Facebook to interact with their friends and see cool stuff.
Don’t you?
Haven’t you been quick to hide posts that you deemed were trying to get you to do something?
This makes email marketing much more effective than social media in general.
Don’t get me wrong – social media is the backbone of any business.
It’s just not effective to directly sell…
Social Media is SUPER effective to indirectly sell.
Both email marketing and social media should be utilized – just in different ways.
Hope you enjoyed the tips and insights – let me know if you have any questions!
