What Is Better “Social Media Marketing” Or “Email Marketing” ?
Yesterday I found a very interesting debate article on John Chow’s blog about : Social Media Marketing Vs. Email Marketing, and thought it would be great to share my opinion about it with you.
In this post, John Chow claims that “Social Media Marketing is no match for good old fashion Email Marketing“. Well, I am not here to criticize John Chow as I have no doubts about the veracity of what he wrote. I just think that Email Marketing doesn’t work for everyone. At least, when you are a new blogger, you need to drive traffic to your site first, before being able to build an email list.
I have decided to share with you, my ideal step-by-step strategy about how to drive traffic to your blog and build your list.
As you might already know, in order to build a list, you first need an autoresponder such as AWeber, which is actually the best autoresponder in the world so far. But subscribing to AWeber alone, won’t get you any traffic, you will have to attract visitors to subscribe to your list.
One of the best way to make people subscribe to your list is to offer them a Free ebook written by yourself. However it doesn’t prevent your subscribers to unsubscribe to your list anytime if they were not satisfied with what they read in your ebook or blog.
Another out-of-the-box idea would be to offer your subscribers a plugin (you created) that is free to use as long as your subscribers never unsubscribe to your list. Well, it doesn’t prevent subscribers from using an email address they never use…
You can also find other interesting ideas about how to make your visitors subscribing to your list. I once thought about promoting every subscriber’s blog on a special ad slot in my right sidebar or header bar at random so that I can feature a big number of ads. It’s still under consideration but in this case I will have to remove my blogroll and replace it for the special slot designed for my subscribers’ ads. It will also encourage my blogroll friends to subscribe to my list.
Now, let me get back to the subject and talk about why I think we should also take advantage of Social Media Marketing.
If you are new in the blogosphere, you might feel really alone, I mean you don’t get much visitors and you want other bloggers to notice you. So the best solution for you is to subscribe and submit your articles to several Social Media Networks such as (Digg, Stumbleupon, reddit etc… I have a full list of all the Social Media Network I use in the following post : How To Increase Your Blog Traffic)
Once you will attract people to subscribe to your list, and reach a good number of subscribers, you’ll have the power to bring a lot of traffic to your site in few minutes! I’m not kidding you!
Let’s imagine you created a list of 60,000 subscribers like John Chow, if you send an email to your subscribers saying something like “Come And Learn How I Can Bring 60,000 Visitors To My Blog Instantly”, you’ll certainly get very interested to learn how he does, and click on his link that redirect you to his main homepage. Unconsciously you’ll become one of his subscribers that contributed to make him get 60,000 visitors in just a few hours.
Now you understand how powerful is Email Marketing, I higly recommend you to subscribe to AWeber through my link and take benefit from the $1 Aweber first month trial. I also encourage you to subscribe to as many social media network as possible, and follow me on each of them. I’ll follow you back and help you to rank higher in social media network so that we all take benefit from helping each other.
Benjamin Cip is a full-time professional blogger and internet marketer, constantly helping bloggers to make money online and become successful in the blogosphere.
October 1, 2009
16:38
I agree with most of what you have said. Email lists are not going to help new bloggers too much. But at the same time, don’t let social media distract you from building a solid list.
Carl Coddington´s last blog ..One Little Philosophy Improved My Sales By 250 Percent
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Benjamin Cip
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October 1st, 2009 at 21:40
The ideal would be to combine both email marketing and social media marketing.
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October 1, 2009
18:11
Good article Ben. Enjoyed it and liked John’s post on the topic as well.
Business and blogging are very similar as they are both founded on good relationships. Email marketing successfully builds a relationship, but it’s a little one way.
Engaging with people, contributing and participating in social media has really helped me increase my traffic levels recently.
Alex – The Rat Race Lab´s last blog ..Rat Race Lab: Comment Rules
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Benjamin Cip
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October 1st, 2009 at 22:23
I want to encourage my readers to participate in social media network with me, by following me and bookmarking my posts. I would of course follow them back and bookmark their post. Top bloggers wouldn’t have become what they are today, without their readers. To me, they owe their success to their readers. But that’s just my opinion
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October 1, 2009
23:37
You’re right, email marketing doesn’t work for everyone, and for me, social media marketing wins hands-down. With email marketing, yes, if you have a large list of subscribers then it’s great guaranteed, short-term traffic, but with social media, your message can go viral – Especially with the multiplier effect on Facebook and retweets on Twitter.
Ben´s last blog ..Is There Such Thing as a Stress-Free Vacation?
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Benjamin Cip
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October 2nd, 2009 at 00:00
Just take the example of Darren Rowse, he’s got a lot of his traffic from social media network like Digg. We should all connect via Social Media Network and help our community to grow and become more influential in the blogosphere.
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October 1, 2009
23:40
Great Post Ben, I agree with you. Email marketing won’t work until you have a solid base of readers and content. But Social Media Marketing does work for everyone without considering the size of the blog.
Asswass´s last blog ..Rule #9 Radical Marketing: Don’t always believe in common sense
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Benjamin Cip
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October 2nd, 2009 at 00:01
Talking about social media network, I noticed that you receive some good traffic from social media network, don’t you?
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October 2, 2009
01:24
So using social media to build your list. Then, using your list to drive traffic to your site. Got it.
Andi | Web Marketer Depot´s last blog ..What’s Wrong With Your SEO Keyword Research?
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Benjamin Cip
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October 3rd, 2009 at 00:31
Yes, that’s it.
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October 2, 2009
10:07
I would go for social marketing in beginning because in beginning of your blogging career you do not have a big E-mail list and at that time you need promotion with social marketing. But I would also say that E-Mail marketing is the best of Marketing and it is very helpful.
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Benjamin Cip
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October 3rd, 2009 at 00:33
That’s exactly what is my strategy. I should try to be more active on forums and blogs as well so that I can bring more traffic to my blog than before. I think we should combine both social media marketing and email marketing, althout email marketing become effective once you’ve created a big list.
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October 2, 2009
11:40
It’s true Ben…My email list now is reaching 100 and I don’t think I can have 100 subscriber if i still using feedburner..what I can see is..readers prefer to subscribe using autoresponder than Feed RSS..For me..we can have serious person that are interested on us if we’re using email marketing rather than social media..
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Benjamin Cip
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October 3rd, 2009 at 00:36
Well, Email Marketing itself can’t work without traffic. I would prefer to combine both Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing to get more success. Even if you get a lot of subscriber it doesn’t mean you will be able to make them clicks on your link if you don’t have something that could catch their interest.
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Een Rockstar
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October 3rd, 2009 at 06:40
Yeah..I use facebook and twitter as my main social media network..creating a group in facebook also give benefit for us..like I create a rockstar blogger group at facebook..when I have something worth to share I’ll send a message to all group members..
Een Rockstar´s last blog ..Rockstar Round Up September 2009
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October 2, 2009
21:04
I see that what I was going to say has already been said in the earlier comments – use social media to get traffic and build a list, then use the list to sell, basically.
I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to submit your own articles to digg, stumble etc. too often, you could be flagged as somebody only promoting your own stuff and not contributing to the “greater good”. I’d definitely try to only make it no more than 1 out of 10, my own articles.
Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Google Removes The Pirate Bay From Search Results
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Benjamin Cip
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October 3rd, 2009 at 00:38
Well you might be right. I noticed that I get more traffic from stumbleupon recently than digg. I already bookmarked some blogger’s articles, and I think I shouldn’t bookmark my own articles from now on. I would prefer my readers to bookmark it for me.
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October 2, 2009
22:11
Heya, i am back with my blog. Hehe glad to see awesome activity here at your blog!
Drop by sometime soon to mine
Dino´s last blog ..Been Away For So Long!
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Benjamin Cip
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October 3rd, 2009 at 00:40
Hey Dino, Nice to see you arround again! Thanks for dropping by. I left you a comment on your blog.
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October 3, 2009
05:42
Social media marketing is most important marketing tool. It’ll drive the traffic to your blog and you will be able to create a solid database of regular readers. Without it everything fails.
Ricky´s last blog ..11 Ways To Get Noticed By Other Bloggers [Blogging Tips]
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Benjamin Cip
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October 3rd, 2009 at 13:37
I really like Social Media Marketing as well. But I should combine both Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing to get more chance to succeed online.
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October 3, 2009
13:44
I like email marketing more. Social media gives you a lot traffic but mostly are untargeted visits who doesn’t read your contents most of the time. Well, that’s in my case.
nathan´s last blog ..6 Practical Ways To Survive a Major Philippine Flood
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Benjamin Cip
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October 3rd, 2009 at 14:40
I understand your point, but how do you get visitors to subscribe to your blog if you don’t get traffic or exposure from social media network?
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nathan
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October 3rd, 2009 at 16:12
Well, that’s a good point though. Better improve my social media skills to get more traffic I guess.
nathan´s last blog ..6 Practical Ways To Survive a Major Philippine Flood
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October 4, 2009
06:42
I agree that an email list isn’t going to help new bloggers. I have found I’m more successful with social marketing.
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Benjamin Cip
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October 4th, 2009 at 20:28
Hi Rose, Social Media Marketing is definitely a must for new blogger, but once a blogger gather enought traffic to his site, he shouldn’t neglect using an autoresponder and try email marketing which is also a powerful tool.
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October 5, 2009
00:42
Benjamin,
I like the idea of combining email and social media marketing. I think that every bit helps in generating traffic to one’s site.
Thank you for creating another informative article!
You are doing a very good job here, inspiring and helping others.
Kind Wishes
Ana´s last blog ..Insightful Creation – My present truth
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Benjamin Cip
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October 5th, 2009 at 00:50
Thank you for your nice comment and support, Ana! I’m glad you enjoyed my post. I hope this article will be beneficial for most of my readers.
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October 5, 2009
10:58
Building a solid mailing list is the best way for long term marketing. E-Mail marketing is very powerful, but Social Media Marketing should definitely be looked at. Both are very powerful methods to make money.
Balend N´s last blog ..Samsung Behold II powered by Android, headed to T-Mobile USA
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Benjamin Cip
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October 7th, 2009 at 11:39
You’re right Balend N, but you need traffic to help to build a mailing list, and one of the best way to get traffic is to use social media network. That’s why I think both Email Marketing and Social Media marketing are very important.
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