When researchers at the Nielsen Company set out to prove that social media has a negative impact on how much we e-mail, they had no idea that the test would prove the exact opposite of what they hypothesized. Based on their findings, it’s evident that the more consumers use social media, the more they are also using e-mail.
Nielsen isn’t the only company onto the correlation between e-mail and social media. David DanieIs of Forrester Research recently spoke at the Shop.org summit in Las Vegas, explaining that while e-mail marketing is still an effective medium for marketers, there are many challenges to deal with. Namely, social media and mobile devices.
With Facebook boasting user numbers that rival the entire US population and Twitter recently being valued at $1 billion, social media is the new black. And as more and more consumers continue to jump on the social media bandwagon, they are also becoming more savvy (and more mobile) when it comes to how they access their information online. According to comScore, the number of people using their mobile device to access news and information online more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009. And SurveySampling reports that about 65% of decision makers view marketing e-mails on their text-only mobile devices.
So what does this mean for Internet marketers?
While e-mail marketing continues to be an effective marketing strategy, online marketers must be mindful of the changing behaviors of their audiences—and embrace that change. Start today by incorporating social media into your e-mail campaigns, enabling consumers to share the information with others, and writing plain text e-mails to ensure your messages can be readable on any e-mail platform.
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