Online social networking and advanced messaging networks are the preferred modes of communication of the Millennial Generation, and it’s easy to understand why.
After all, social media giants such as Facebook and messaging apps such as WhatsApp enjoyed a major surge in popularity around the same time the Millennials were coming of age.
Does that mean this generation has given up on email?
Not necessarily.
It turns out that email use is quite popular among young adults these days.
According to a recent report published by the Principal Financial Group (PFG) in the United States, email happens to be a key element of life for the Millennial Generation.
In fact, the research by PFG shows that Millennials prefer to use email to keep in touch with companies that are important in their lives, such as their banks and insurance companies.
I’m not surprised that Millennials haven’t abandoned email.
The use of social media channels is fine for entertainment and casual communications, but Millennials associate the use of email with formal and business-like communications that may require forwarding, threading, archiving, etc.
When it comes to using popular email programs such as Outlook and Gmail, Millennials associate them with their respective office apps that allow them to create documents and be productive.
What about social media?
Business owners and brand managers whose target audiences include contacts of the Millennial Generation tend to put too much attention to social media marketing and not enough to email campaigns.
In recent months, branding and advertising experts have warned that social media marketing is reaching the hangover stage.
The typical levels of return on investment (ROI) with regard to social media marketing are starting to diminish after years of bombarding the Millennial Generation with updates and clever engagement campaigns.
Even with the advent of online social networking, email marketing campaigns continue to deliver strong ROI levels.
Modern email marketing technologies such as contextual messages tend to be more effective than trying to come up with clever social media updates that may or may not achieve viral status.
Moreover, email platforms are suitable for marketing automation, which saves time and provides accuracy to the campaign; this type of automation does not translate well in the social media world of manual engagement.
The bottom line is that Millennials can certainly be reached via email at a lower cost and with more efficacy than through social media.
