Traditional marketing provides a better return on investment (ROI) for retailers than social media, according to a new report from ForeSee Results.

 Do you find email to be more effective than social media? Let us know in the comments.

The report found that social media interactions are a main influence for only 5 percent of visitors to retail websites.

The research found that more traditional marketing tactics like promotional emails (19%), search engine results (8%), and Internet advertising (7%), influence more visits to retail websites.

Other highlights from the report include:

*Traditional marketing techniques like promotional emails influence not only more traffic; they deliver better-quality traffic. Some of the most satisfied site visitors arrived at the site because of previous familiarity with a brand, promotional emails, word-of-mouth, and product review websites.

*Most people want to engage with retailers, but but prefer to do so via email or on retail websites, rather than on social sites.  In fact, only 8% of online shoppers said that’s social media was their preferred way to interact with a retailer.

*People are more satisfied with retailers’ presence on Facebook than they are with Facebook itself.

“Every retailer should know how many customers are influenced by promotional emails, advertising on Facebook or word-of-mouth recommendations, and furthermore, they should know which group is most likely to buy,” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results and author of today’s report.

“They should also know how people want to hear from them and how well they’re doing when it comes to communicating through those channels.  Serious thought needs to be given to finding out whether social media is worth the investment for their business, and then if the answer is yes, they need to make the most of it by making sure that interactions on social media meet the needs and expectations of customers.”

Do you use email marketing and social media? Let us know in the comments.