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Picking your battles and creating a comprehensive strategy is no easy feat given the variety of digital marketing tactics now being used. Social media marketing vs. email marketing are comparable to apples vs. oranges. They are executed extremely differently and have various functions within your entire digital marketing plan. But in order to expand a business, we must determine which channel works better and merits more of your time and money.

Even though you might have thought that social media marketing and email marketing were on opposite sides of the marketing spectrum, they can surely complement one another to help your next marketing effort. In the end, when used properly, email and social media can drive leads and cultivate brand loyalty among your target market. 

Read this blog till the end to make an informed decision about using both these marketing techniques separately or integrating them for the best results. 

Let’s first look at them from separate viewpoints. 

Social Media Marketing 

The practice of advertising information on social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube is known as social media marketing. Social media marketing is usually used to delight prospects at the top of the sales funnel. To maximise lead generation and raise brand awareness, content should be customised to each channel’s requirements. If done correctly, there are chances your audience would be eager to associate with you for the longer term. This is where the scope of email marketing can dawn. 

However, there are several ways for marketing using social media and if you ask a good social media marketing services agency they will probably give you a few more. 

If you want to advertise on social media, the advertising must also satisfy the demands of the target market for that platform. For Instagram, you should have high-quality images and keep the captions brief; on LinkedIn, however, storytelling is preferred.

When it comes to social media marketing, you can really experiment with the content for each platform and choose the content formats that work best for your business. Moreover, social media platforms are introducing newer features almost every week to delight their users. Take Instagram’s DM feature for example, which has changed the game for social shopping. 

Email Marketing 

Email marketing is the practice of sending promotional materials to subscribers of the content in order to move prospects through the sales funnel. For instance, a supporter of Canva might subscribe to their emails to receive notifications of new promotional offers. Emails used for marketing need to be engaging as well as educational. If you are not skilled on this front, it might be a good idea to take the help of a content writing agency to help you with this. 

But the catch is that the prospect receiving those emails should have voluntarily signed up for receiving emails from the company or else it could be considered spam. 

Knowing that a prospect up as subscribed to receive your emails is a win in itself. It means they are interested in knowing more about you, and your offers and have reached out their hand to keep in touch with your company. 

According to Campaign Monitor, users still prefer receiving promotional content in their email inboxes by a margin of 72% to 17% over social media. When it comes to making a purchase, 4.24% of people who click a link in an email promotion and only 2.49% of those who open a link from a social media site are likely to do so.

Therefore having 50,000 followers on your social media page is very different from having 50,000 subscribers to your mail. Why? Because not all 50,000 accounts have followed you for the same reason. While some may like your content, others might like the influencers you collaborate with, others may follow you out of obligation and the list goes on. On the other hand, those who have subscribed to your mail have done so because they are interested in keeping in touch and being in the loop for the latest offerings of your brand. 

So if you ask me, social media marketing vs. email marketing, I’d say email marketing is a clear winner. But can they integrate? Let’s find out. 

Social Media Marketing Vs. Email Marketing – Where Is the Link? 

You don’t have to simply Tweet your email link as a brand in the hopes that your followers would sign up. However, by adding social network profile links in your marketing emails, you can give your audience new ways to interact with your content and brand. 

You can combine both marketing strategies in ways that will please your clients by using interesting, eye-catching methods.  Social media marketing helps define your brand and draws in new prospective customers. Email marketing emphasises and deepens ties with loyal customers. Together, these advantages can provide your audience with effective communication and marketing. If you are not sure of how to integrate the two, it’s a good idea to take the help of digital marketing services.

Both forms of marketing guide customers – at different levels – down the marketing or sales funnel. While social media marketing caters to prospects at the top of the by making them aware of the brand, creating consistent content, and reaching out to them at the right place at the right time. 

Email marketing looks to strengthen the existing bond with prospects. It looks to educate and engage individuals at lower levels of the funnel – maybe at the consideration stage. But email marketing can be used to drive individuals to the company’s social media pages, its website, the landing page or any other platform as deemed appropriate by the email marketer. 

Social media and email marketing are both included in a holistic strategy for digital marketing in order to connect with customers in a unique and memorable way. The two competing approaches really complement one another quite nicely. So instead of asking social media marketing vs. email marketing, which is better? You must ask, social media marketing vs. email marketing – where is the link?