This blog post is in response to a post by Tim Devaney and Tom Stein called “Why Email Is Still More Effective Than Social Media Marketing” on Forbes.com

Devaney and Stein identify social media as a useful tool, but not as effective as email when it comes to attracting consumers to online businesses. In fact, it cites some studies indicating that both Facebook and Twitter were essentially insignificant.

In this era of social media, why is it failing as a means to drive online purchases? The blog post suggests that email, Facebook and Twitter hit different user needs, similar to how companies target different segments. Facebook is a method to engage customers with the company on a brand level. Twitter offers breaking news and updates from a company. Email is for a willing audience who have chosen to subscribe to deals and information from the business.

The “willingness” factor is key. Social media offers a bombardment of information; it is easy for a user to overlook an advertisement, post, tweet or link to a website. Email is sent to people who have chosen to receive them (and if they do not want them, they can choose to stop receiving them), and is a targeted presence. In other words, potential customers who are receiving the emails want to see that information, and won’t necessarily glaze over it.

One of the challenges businesses face in producing an effective online marketing presence, is to leverage emails in a positive manner while still having an effective social media presence as an aiding tool. With many people now using their mobile devices to access email, the same information and ease of purchase needs to be communicated on a much smaller and compatible scale.