Email data capture should be a priority for construction marketers. A lot of fuss is being made over getting more followers on twitter/linkedin, likes on facebook, or subscribers on youtube but their value pales in comparison to a new email subscriber.
12 Reasons Construction Marketers’
Should Prioritise Email Capture Over Social Media
1. The ultimate way in.
Capturing email is an extremely efficient route for construction marketers to gather other relevant contact details including phone and social media connections. All of which can be gained by a single reply to your initial email. In contrast connecting with someone on social media rarely means they are willing to hand over more personal details.
A comparison to an offline interaction is that an email address is closer to a business card exchange, whilst social media connection is more of a handshake and a brief conversation.
2. Response Rate
Statistics show that emails are 4 x more effective than Facebook. So with every email campaign you send out you can expect 4 x as the website traffic to your construction website than you can from a facebook post. Using segmentation (below) could lead to an even greater response rate.
3. Wanted
There is no greater reward for a construction marketer than an individual who has actively entered their email address and opted to receive content from you. They WANT something from you. In contrast, on social media platforms a follow or like represents a passive action, a throwaway click that says “okay i accept your content will be visible and appear on my feeds” but doesn’t suggest any intention to take action upon them. Your followers may like everything you post there after, but doesn’t mean they have the intention to buy. The new double opt-in aspects of GDPR further strengthens the audiences interest when they provide their email address details.
4. Cost
Receiving and sending email is low a cost activity. In contrast, recent changes to facebook means audience reach of non-promoted (organic) posts have reduced by 50% pushing businesses towards paid advertising (boosting) to achieve full visibility to their followers. Aside from when you are sending several thousand emails via newsletter platforms such as MailChimp (which is great by the way), the cost of sending an email or multiple emails remains FREE.
5. The Mindshare
When a subscriber gets that email from you they wanted you have their attention. Yes there are other emails in their inbox but if what they expect from you is of great enough importance and reflects something they really want you will get there attention. A brochure, a quote or a giveaway for example. On social media your message can get lost, surrounded by various distractions; Celebrities, sports, music and more. How does that great new brochure look compared to the new trailer for Jurassic World? The answer: “Not so interesting“. Email receivers allow more time to consume information, whilst social media thrives on the flick and scroll.
6. Relationship Building
Similar to point 1, but worthy of a unique mention. With all the off-the-cuff comments, humour, memes and GIFs on social media its difficult to dissect or even have a genuine business conversation with anyone on social platforms. Yes, there is Inmail on Linkedin and Direct messaging on others, but nothing quite matches a professional business signature or personal email address when it comes to credibility.
7. Personalisation
The personal touch is key to relationship building in construction marketing. We can shout a widespread message to our entire social media audience in the hope for a response, but a personalised email message will go a lot further in strengthening relationships. Personalisation is a great way for construction marketers to make the receiver feel special.
8. Segmentation
Construction Marketers can segment their audiences with Email allowing for greater balance between personalisation and wider broadcasting. By targeting specific demographics, it is possible to target audiences that have similar interests and design email campaigns around those needs. By building up a bigger email databases construction marketing activities become more efficient as we can apply techniques similar to social media but with greater potential for the desired impact.
9. Ownership
With email you OWN the conversation. The interaction you have had with an individual is unique to you or your business. It’s not visible to others on social media, it’s not visible to the social media platform. This is your inbox and your time to make an impact. Platforms like Linkedin are great for finding people actively requesting help, but the request is open to everyone take the relationship and depth of conversation a step further to engage in email communication.
10. Anti-Ageing
Despite the introduction of social media, SMS, Whatsapp, messaging and the rest email still thrives. The important factor for construction marketers that may be obsessing heavily over social media is that your audience may not be around forever. People may switch off to Twitter, linkedin, facebook etc, whereas you will always own your email database.
11. Privacy
With all the events surrounding the recent Facebook data privacy breach a lot of questions are being raised over the credibility of these platforms, and whether they represent suitable places to engage in detailed communications. Whilst still worthy platforms raising awareness through sharing news (albeit facebook as a news source is declining), advice and other announcemens as they represent channels audiences frequently use, an email represents one of the most private places to communicate in an environment obsessed with sharing.
12. Forwarding
A forwarded message indicates the original recipient of your email sees significant value in your message, and there is a high chance the receiver of the forwarded message will open the email. Yes, social media provides the ability to share with a wide audience, but the personalisation of an email being forwarded would suggest genuine value associated with the emails content.
In Support of Social Media
Social media is still a great platform for reaching a wider audience through sharing and tagging and can be highly effective in establishing relationships, enhancing credibility and increasing visibility and ultimately lead to the capture of new email contacts you may not have received otherwise. Social media automation makes it simple to continuously share your content online, providing a a slow stream of traffic into your website and increasing the potential for email capture. Why not check out the latest volume of Construction Marketer that provides some great tips and tactics on how to optimise your social media activities and increase your ability to capture email using the platform.
Do you agree that capturing email is essential and social media is secondary in construction marketing? Share your thoughts on the subject below.
