I’m a social
To confirm that I’m really a stats junkie, check this out … it’s pretty compelling.
We all kinda know that Social Network sites like facebook, twitter, flickr, myspace, ning, etc, are good marketing and branding tools. I mean, it makes sense; a display banner ad might be effective, but having a friend or family member personally endorse or recommend or tell you about something offers up a huge familial endorsement that can’t compare. Or can it? Well, yes, it can.
I recently did three email campaigns to promote ilovealuger.com, and there were only slight differences it the email newsletters;
- Mailed the Press Release to the Toronto Press (not very targeted)
- Mailed the Press Release to an Industry List (slightly more targeted)
- Mailed a modified Note directly from a colleague’s gmail address
The first two were very standard & corporate. Not an example of “social media”, rather a very bland and staid press communique. The message also came from an anonymous and generic email address. So, people received this message from a faceless corporation.
Compare that, with the personal note (which was very similar to the press release, except the copy changed only a wee bit). Firstly, it came directly from a personal gmail address. So, the people receiving this message got something from someone they knew. Now, might not seem like an example of Social Media, because its not using facebook, twitter or some other silly site people always think of when you bark out the words “social media”, but in fact, I’d propose that it’s a more profound example of Social Media than any site, because it was received by people as a personal one-on-one note from someone they know.
The result? Off the fricking chart!!!
The Personal Note drove 70 visits from 300 emails, compared to 48 visits from 3000 Industry emails.
To put conclusions against this:
- “Slightly” targeted press note sent to jaded and cranky press people = 1% click-through rate
- More targeted Industry list = 1.6% click-through rate
- Personal Endorsement = 23.3% click-through rate
So, I can’t say it should be terribly surprising that the personal note performed better. Advertisers and marketers have know the power of personal endorsment for a very long time. That’s not the surprising part. The compelling and interesting part, is the order of magnitute of the effectiveness gain. I mean 20x better is compelling.
Food for thought. Comment below or tweet me (@lairdf) with your thoughts.
