Email

I’ve noticed lately that many small business owners are choosing Facebook as their primary online marketing method – even to the exclusion of having a website or email list (newsletter) at all.

After all, Facebook is free.

Lots of people are ON Facebook, using it every day.

It’s easy to pop in a time or two on a daily basis and say something, or click a few “Like” buttons – it feels very productive.

Using FB seems like a no-brainer!

But using Facebook EXCLUSIVELY is “craziness”, according veteran Internet marketer Andrew Cavanaugh of Offlinebiz.com.

Cavanaugh continues “Do you really want to rely on an external site you have no control over for your list of prospects and clients and for handling the way they interact with your business? You really should have your own website and your own email list.”

Jim Cockrum, the most trusted Internet marketer according to IMReportCard.com, addressed the “email list versus Facebook” when he told me:

Abandoning email to go 100% with FB is a huge mistake. The best use of any FB marketing is to grow your email list.

Reasons to keep email:

1 If FB decides they don’t like you, they pull the plug and you vanish along with all your leads (I’ve seen it happen).
2 Sending bulk messages on FB is tedious and ineffective.
3 You can’t segment and target specific customer and prospect groups with FB
4 You can’t launch an automated campaign of follow up messages for each new follower on FB (you can with email)
5 You can’t personalize your messages based on the preferences and predetermined parameters your customers indicate when they join with FB, but with email you can. For example, you can automatically send customers a one year bonus with email. With FB you can’t.
6 On FB you compete with countless distractions in your marketing efforts, but with email, once your prospect opens it, you have a chance to own their attention (even if only momentarily)

I could probably brainstorm a list of a dozen more reasons to keep email, but that will hopefully help you out the next time a customer thinks about dropping email for FB.

Should you still use Facebook? Certainly – but it’s much smarter to use Facebook as one potential source of traffic and new prospects, rather than an entire solution.

One of my new clients has a contact form on her site that asked for very basic info:

Name
Email Address
Phone
Comments

She called and asked me to make the form longer – to request more information.

Generally speaking – that’s not a good idea, and here’s why. It boils down to two main reasons:

Site visitors are in a hurry – they don’t want to mess with filling out a long form.
Visitors are also protective of their privacy, and they aren’t sure what you’re going to do with all that info!

So be very careful what you ask for in a form – and make sure you really need the information.

For most email lists, for example, asking for a first name and email address is all you need. You’ll get more signups that way.

However – your sign-ups will be less targeted than if you request more complete information, so that’s the “flipside” to consider. Which is more important to you – more, less targeted contacts, or fewer, more-targeted contacts?

Always tell people what they’re going to get when they DO enter data on a form, and if possible give them an incentive for doing so – a discount, free report, etc. It’s also helpful to reassure them that you’ll respect their privacy and not sell or share their info with anyone else.