When it comes to online sales and marketing, e-mail still rules. That’s the word from a just-released Forrester Research and GSI Commerce study. Despite social media’s ability to connect millions of consumers across wide spaces and interests, this, the study says has a negligible effect online retail purchases.
The study analyzed retailers’ data captured between November 12 and December 20, 2010 and found that less than 2 percent of orders came via social networks. But what about personalized sidebar ads on Facebook? What about Promoted Tweets? No dice, says Todd Wasserman, who wrote the piece on Mashable.
According to the report, e-mail and search advertising (now considered “traditional”) are a company’s best friends. What does this mean for online marketers? Well…don’t count out social networks just yet. The study also finds that the earlier consumers are exposed to online ads, the better the chance to convert them to customers. Still, you probably shouldn’t put all your marketing efforts into one, er, basket.
Read more from Mashable.
