The ONE Reason You Should Prioritize Email Marketing
Updated: Mar 2
With so many digital options to market to your ideal client, how do you decide what to prioritize? Many people start with social media since it’s so ingrained in everyday life and most of us feel fairly confident in setting up and posting. These days it’s also become a main way of communication and connection with people and brands. So, we are all for a strong social presence…as long as you have an email strategy too!
We can list several reasons why, despite the inarguable benefits of social media marketing, that at J Collective, we prioritize email marketing strategies above all else. Analytics for lead conversion, low cost and high ROI, top of mind awareness…we could go on. But there’s one MAJOR, all too personal, reason why I prioritize email marketing over social media….
YOU DO NOT OWN SOCIAL.
This is something I’ve been told for years and have told our clients for years - but until last summer, I didn’t fully grasp the potential impact of this.
You do not own your social media accounts or the content you create on those accounts.
We all have seen a post that gets blocked for something that was flagged by some social media algorithm deeming the post inappropriate or against community guidelines. I’ve even experienced first hand that we don’t own our own content when a COVID stats link was added to an Instagram story during COVID because I used #COVIDTIMES (or something to that effect) with a photo of a Zoom meeting in progress working from the couch.
I remember being irritated because it was completely unrelated to the COVID numbers being broadcasted all day long. And now my story that was meant as a lighthearted depiction of the strange and scary times, had a link to the CDC…ugh. It wasn’t a big deal, but was the first time I truly understood that the Social Media Gods really owned my content…not me.
Take this a step further with my real life social media sob story. Last summer my personal Facebook account was hacked, and suspended because the hacker broke community guidelines. Despite 30 days of trying to dispute it with Facebook to prove it was hacked so I could get ownership of my page back, they shut me down. After countless attempts to get a hold of anyone at Facebook, my account (that I have had since 2004 when you still needed a .edu email address to sign up) was permanently deleted…just like that!
On a personal level that meant 18 years of memories…gone. It may seem a little silly but I am still grieving that loss. Those early years were pre-iPhone days so Facebook acted as my digital photo album that I never thought to back up anywhere else…because why would you? It’s on Facebook! (If you take nothing else away from this post - Back up your photos on Facebook somewhere else…I sure wish I would have.)
On the business level this made me unable to access my business account. Luckily, I had several of the J Collective Team members as admins to the page. So, after a several month long one-woman protest, I finally set up a new personal account to reconnect to my business page. I also had to cancel and order a new business card since it was saved for ad spends and had also been compromised and charged by the hackers.
I’m thankful that I’ve never made social media a primary focus for J Collective, and instead use it to keep a top of mind presence, sharing content (like this blog) from our website. I know very successful entrepreneurs whose sole marketing strategy is social media. For me, what was a pain in the ass, could have been crippling to another business relying solely on social media.
By creating an email database and an email marketing strategy, you own your contacts and your content.
I still 100% believe in social media as a key branding and marketing tool…but as a tool and not a source. That means having your database and content somewhere else, and using social media to share that content to reach and grow that database. It’s also important to diversify your marketing outreach so you aren’t putting all your eggs in one basket.
Do you have an email marketing strategy in place? If not, it's time to start! CLICK HERE for our Tips & Tricks video of how to get started for free!
-Jamie Slough Founder, Marketing & Brand Strategist | J Collective