When it Comes to Social Media Sharing, More is Better

Emails that include sharing options have a higher click-through rate, according to a recent survey. And when it came to sharing, more was better.

The survey, conducted by email marketing firm GetResponse from March 23 to May 12, 2010 examined 500 million messages sent by more than 19,000 individuals or companies. The email senders had the option of including up to 5 social media icons in their message, which would allow email recipients to share the newsletters via channels like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The survey compared the click-through rate (CTR) of messages that included links to those that did not. Results show that allowing readers to share messages generated a 30 percent higher CTR.

Twitter and Facebook were by far the most frequently included links in social emails sent via GetResponse. Almost 7 of every 10 social emails included the Twitter icon, and more than 6 of every 10 social emails included links to Facebook. MySpace and LinkedIn were the next most frequently included links. Digg came in at last place with only 1 of every 100 social emails

The average number of social network icons included in the messages were 1.65. Eighty six percent of social emails linked to only one or two networks. Eight percent linked to three, and only 6 percent linked to four or five.

The results showed that messages with only one icon returned an average 8.70% CTR, while messages with 3 or more social sharing icons generated over 28% higher CTR than messages with one icon, and 55% higher CTR than messages with no social sharing icons … Additionally, the CTR for messages shared on specific social networks varied as well. Most interesting, emails shared on Twitter reached CTRs of 10.20% − over 40% higher than messages not linked to any social media.

An article about the study on Social Times notes that including social network links is a useful and easy way to improve return on investment when it comes to your email marketing efforts. It also asks a good question, whether “those companies that provide better experiences on their social sites and streams [will] keep those customers clicking.” The answer is likely yes. Providing solid content and a great experience, while more expensive and time consuming than putting share links in an email, is the best way to build relationships online and off. While companies are developing that capacity however, putting social sharing links in emails might be a good way to stick their toes in the water when it comes to social media.

You can read the full Social Times article on their site. To download the survey, you can visit the GetResponse website.

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