It’s Still Email Folks
Just because I posted yesterday on latest Facebook user facts, don’t let that suggest to you that I’m getting all giddy over social media.
No, that place in my digital heart belongs to email. And corporate consultancy McKinsey reminds me why in their recent study, Why marketers should keep sending you e-mails, (reported here by BrightWave CEO Simms Jenkins), which finds that email marketing is nearly 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter at acquiring customers.
McKinsey explains: “That’s because 91 percent of all US consumers still use e-mail daily, and the rate at which e-mails prompt purchases is not only estimated to be at least three times that of social media, but the average order value is also 17 percent higher.”
We all know that email is terrific for existing donor retention and additional fundraising. Add acquisition effectiveness to this, and you have a pretty attractive channel.
And one that has clearly crossed the technology divide to mobile devices, as the graph below indicates:
Email on desktops? Yes, some of us still do that. But consider that a new Yesmail study shows revenues per click on mobile marketing emails exceeded those on desktop, at $7.14 vs. $3.26.
To me, this says: If your job is fundraising, master email — really well, on all devices — before you get too distracted by social media.
Tom
3 responses to “It’s Still Email Folks”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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Agreed, Tom, with an admonition: Yes, email. But in concert with — NOT as a replacement to — direct mail. Multichannel donors stay longer. So if you’re acquiring donors or subscribers online, make sure you have a plan in place to capture direct mail addresses and engage online donors offline too. Resources on this are legion. But a great primer is Frank Barry’s article over at npEngage, here: http://www.npengage.com/online-fundraising/multichannel-fundraising-improve-donor-retention/.
Bingo Tom!
before, yes. but don’t think of social media as a distraction. fifteen minutes a day will yield huge returns before you know it