Why Email Is Still a Better Permission Based Marketing Tool Than Facebook - Guest Post by Evan Britton

Building a permission base (or an email list) is one thing that every web publisher should be doing. It is great to get free organic traffic from Google, but if there is one thing we learned in 2011 – it’s that you don’t want to rely on Google for traffic.

By building a permission base, you’ll be able to be in constant contact with your users. You’ll be able to notify them of new updates, important news, or special promotions. Having a connection with your users helps to turn one time visits to your website into repeat visits. And, ironically enough, repeat traffic is one data point that many people have said Google Panda looks for. So, by not relying on Google for traffic you may actually end up getting more traffic from Google.

With the Famous Daily, we will be focused completely on email as our delivery method as opposed to social media. You can subscribe to the famous daily here. Why are we so focused on email as opposed to a Facebook fan page? Here below are 4 reasons why Email is a better permission based marketing tool than Facebook:

1) Control of the User

Facebook continues to make it difficult to get a post in one of your fans newsfeeds. This is a troubling trend as it illustrates the fact that Fan page owners do not have control over their users. If Facebook continues to tweak its news feed algorithm to make it more difficult for brands to show up – what recourse will Fan page owners have?

Maybe Facebook will find creative ways to highlight a Facebook users friends updates while making Fan page and brand updates more obscure.

With email, this of course is never a risk – because you have direct access to communicate with the user via email.

2) Control of the Look and Feel

One great thing about building a permission base is the ability to tell online advertisers that you will also promote their product or service directly to your user base. With email – you control the look and feel of what goes out so you are able to offer branding or any type of creative placement via email.

Controlling the look and feel also allows you to Brand the email with your own products or services and it allows you to control how long the messaging should be and you can dictate how your call to action is baked in.

A Facebook post is a good way to market to a user – but with an email, you can clearly do a lot more. And internet users agree – an eMarketers survey earlier this year showed that 64% of shoppers prefer to get coupons via email while only 8% prefer social media channels such as FaceBook.

3) Email Will Withstand The Test of Time

On the internet, many things don’t withstand the test of time. Email, however, continues to become more and more essential in the daily lives of the entire world.

And while Facebook is the clear dominant force in social media today – history has showed us that what users loves today on the web isn’t always what they will love tomorrow.

So, if a new social network was to ever make a large impact – it would diminish the value of a Facebook fan. Even today, some people say they use Twitter or Google + instead of Facebook. On the other hand – have we ever heard someone say they don’t use email?

4) Customization to the User

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, email offers unparalleled customization. For instance, you can have an email with 5 features, and let the user select which features they want. You can also create different emails based on the location, age, gender, or interests of the user.

Technologies exist today making email personalization incredibly effective – as the user can be made to feel you are talking to directly to them…

* Like this article? You can follow Evan Britton on Twitter at @elbst23