Social Media versus Email Marketing

Almost every marketer wants to know how to get the most out of their resources and today there are more choices than ever on how to invest those precious pennies. In particular, there is the ongoing – and passionate – debate about social media versus email marketing; which one produces the most return?

The world of marketing is not all black and white, and a wise marketer will always try to master every tool available, so he could gain maximum results for his brand, product or service.

Whether marketers use email, social, or both depends on the industry and where the customer is on his purchasing journey.

– It depends on the industry and where the customer is on his purchasing journey;
– The difference also depends on what point someone is in the customer purchasing lifecycle – brand recognition, evaluation, purchase or an actual customer.

Email Marketing:

Email Marketing is great for B2B purposes. Did you know that email has nearly three times as many user accounts as Facebook and Twitter combined?

Most marketers are so busy chasing the latest baubles and magic bullets that they haven’t got a clue about this. After all, what’s old is dead- so email, being older than dirt in internet terms, must be deader than anything. “No one uses it anymore” or better yet, “I tried, but it didn’t work.” However, as a smart marketer, you should consider email, not just essential to their business efforts, but foundational to their marketing and sales systems.

Email is the most personal medium and it is the most “businessy” medium making it perfect for communicating in terms of B2B. When it comes to building business relationships and communicating with partners and clients, most “serious”, “grown-up” medium is email.

Email also gets way more attention per customer (B2B) than anything else. You are more likely to get face time with your prospects if you use email. This is because email allows you to make repeated contact, and that contact in “invasive”. It is in their mailbox – an inner electronic circle. That’s very different from sending out a tweet or posting something on Facebook, where they may or may not see it, because it’s just part of a much larger timeline featuring hundreds of other people.

Social Media:

Social media posts have two very important advantages – they live much longer and they can go viral in no time. A twitter fan browsing your posts may get to messages from previous weeks and even months and engage with them. On the other hand, if a few Facebook followers with 10,000 followers each likes or shares your post, it may potentially reach 100,000 people, increasing immensely the chance for an even broader reach.

– Allows for laser targeting (by location, age, interests, etc.);
– The copy is shorter, lighter and more entertaining;
– It costs R0 to post on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest;
– Keeps fans educated and informed on a real-time, day-to-day basis;
– Great for generating brand awareness;
– Helps improve search engine ranking;

It is obvious that there are values and benefits in both marketing approaches. Social media helps you keep the day, casual conversation, where email marketing is much more effective in delivering a direct offer to the client’s attention.

We recommend that you avoid choosing one over the other, but rather create a strategy that meets your clients wherever they are. After all the end game in digital marketing is called Conversion and we have to learn how to influence prospects’ decisions over multiple marketing channels.