Lots of people want to talk about email marketing vs social media. But the truth is both email marketing and social media marketing can be powerful for any brand online.
But if you had to choose one, which is better?
In the simplest sense, even in a world of social media prevalence, more consumers use email than any social media platform, and more than half of consumers check their email before they check their social media in the morning.
But let’s dive a little deeper. The following are five reasons why email marketing can be better than social media marketing.
You own your contact list
Unlike any social media platform, you actually own the contact list of your email subscribers.
You don’t own your social media subscribers
In other words, this means that if a platform shuts down (like Vine did), you lose all those followers that you worked so hard to get. They’re gone.
This is because social media platforms are third-party providers of connections. They are the ones who have control over your followers and even your account (whether you get banned or not for violating terms of service, for example).
You own your email subscribers
With email, your subscribers are yours. You have access to them as long as they want to be on your list.
Email marketing vs Social Media Winner: email marketing.
Email is more personal
In an overwhelmingly digital world, consumers are increasingly craving deeper connections with the brands they buy from.
Enter email.
Personalized email drives better engagement
Your message delivers directly into your recipient’s inbox. And personalization can heighten that engagement and connection as well by including his or her first name, for example.
Audience segmentation allows you to break up your contacts into groups and adjust your message accordingly, whether it’s customers you haven’t seen in a while or contacts who have yet to make a purchase.
The sky’s the limit when it comes to segmentation, especially when using DailyStory.
Social media is personal one-on-one
But with social media, you have to speak at large to your target audience with hope that your followers (and/or their friends) see your content in their news feeds and engage with it. This is in competition with everything else social media users see in their feeds.
Email marketing vs Social Media Winner: it’s a tie.
Algorithms are not a factor
Many marketers have to spend a great deal of time considering (and strategizing against) social media algorithms.
Social media controls what is shown
An algorithm is essentially a series of calculations that determine what content a user sees in his or her feed on that social media platform. Its intent is to show what the user will most engage with and have a desire to stay on that platform longer.
One of the most talked-about is the Facebook Algorithm since the social network is the largest in the world, and it has shifted in recent years to prioritizing other user content over that of business pages.
Email has established best practices
Of course, while email doesn’t have to contend with algorithms, you still want to use best practices in order to prevent ending up as spam.
Email marketing vs Social Media Winner: email marketing
Full control over your content
Instagram requires a properly sized image or video to post. Twitter limits your tweet to 280 characters.
Those are just two examples of how a marketer is naturally limited in what and how to post content on social media platforms.
On the flip side, email is entirely within your control. You can use whatever best conveys your message to your recipients.
Email marketing vs Social Media Winner: email marketing
Check out our breakdown of a successful marketing email.
You’ll get a higher ROI with email
Your return on investment should always be a major factor in your digital marketing strategy decisions.
In fact, about one in five marketing emails get opened on average, with an average clickthrough rate of 3.57 percent. Compare that to Facebook, which has an average clickthrough rate of 1.11 percent.
We have dozens of additional statistics that show the value of email marketing on top of that.
Email marketing vs Social Media Winner: email marketing
In conclusion
Of course, even though email marketing can be better than social media marketing, the best overall strategy is to use both for your branding, promotions and consumer relationship-building.
