Email Marketing Vs. Social Media Marketing: What, When, Why

by / ⠀Startup Advice / March 24, 2021
Email Marketing Vs. Social Media Marketing

Digital marketing is an ever-evolving field. When companies want a limited-time promotion, some choose email marketing while others go with social media marketing. However, email marketing and social media marketing have unique advantages that can help in achieving your promotional goals.

Email Marketing

Using email marketing strategies enables marketers to stay connected with a potential audience in a highly targeted and personalized way. 

When should you use email marketing?

Email marketing is an effective digital marketing tool used to achieve short-term goals. For instance, sending a personalized email message would be great when you want to boost sales for a specific sale or holiday. Email marketing tools are more accessible than before. You don’t need a big budget to get started. There is a lot of cheap email marketing software available that can help you get up and running. With email marketing, you can quickly generate awareness about special products or brands. In fact, you should use email marketing when you want to:

  • Generate brand awareness
  • Drive web traffic
  • Improve conversions
  • Nurture leads
  • Foster customer loyalty
  • Use a cost-efficient digital marketing tool

Now, let’s understand the importance of email marketing. 

Why should you use email marketing?

A research study projects the increase in global email users to 4.3 billion by 2023. With a large number of users, companies can send them a personalized message and generate more revenue. 

Promote personalized communication

Personalization is the key to making customers feel valued. When you send a personalized email, it improves open rates and user engagement. 

Reach your audience at the right time

Connecting the right audience at the right time is essential. Email marketing services enable a quick and easy way to connect with the right audience at their convenient time. 

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Generate cost-effective campaigns

Compared to other digital marketing campaigns like search ads or digital advertising, email marketing is cost-effective. You just need to create compelling content with an attractive image, and you can run a campaign quickly and effectively.

Improve sales

Email marketing campaigns play a vital role in qualifying leads, saving time for the sales team. You can easily track whether the leads open your emails or click the links in your email message.

Send timely campaigns

You can plan an entire email marketing campaign on short notice and ensure your audience receives the email at the right time. This improves customer engagement. 

Social Media

The number of social media users is expected to grow to 4.4 billion in 2025. Social media is the right place to be when you want to establish a strong connection with a target audience and promote branding. 

When should you go with social media?

Marketers use social media for various purposes. Whether you want to expand customer reach or build a positive brand reputation, social media can help. 

You should specifically use social media when you need to:

  • Humanize your brand
  • Attract new customers
  • Increase website traffic
  • Strengthen brand promotion
  • Generate leads
  • Partner with influencers
  • Manage online reputation

Now let’s explore the top reasons to use social media for business. 

Why should you go with social media?

Social media works for business because it is extensively used, comparatively intuitive, and versatile. It supports a wide range of media to target new/potential customers. From nurturing brands to generating revenue, social media benefits businesses in many ways. 

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Global market reach

The increased number of global users on social media each day gives a reason for businesses to promote their products on social networks. It’s more accessible and more responsive to expand customer reach through social media.

Generate brand awareness

When you leverage exclusive use of social media, you can effectively generate brand awareness. From connecting to social media to building and maintaining relationships with customers, you can take actionable steps to build brand recognition through social media.

Easily connect with the audience

You can post various types of content (photos, videos, short articles, etc.) to connect with the audience easily. Also, you can host a live event and conduct surveys/polls through social media to improve interactions with the customers. 

Strengthen online reputation

Social media allows you to reply to potentially destructive comments promptly and assist in maintaining the reputation of excellent customer service that you want your business to have.

Gather customer data and improve 

Social media offers key insights, not customer data (such as a number of followers, likes, shares, etc.). You can find out how customers are engaging with your content on social media and take actions to improvise. 

Undoubtedly, both email marketing and social media marketing have their distinct benefits. If you have strategies in mind, they both can produce better results for your business. Nonetheless, before you make the selection on either one:

  • Define your business goals
  • Understand the requirements
  • Determine budget

This will help in selecting the right tool to achieve desired actions. Most of the time, businesses choose email marketing services to promote personalized conversations and increase profitability. On the contrary, social media marketing services are used to build a strong brand reputation management. 

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Both of these marketing strategies can unleash fruitful results if used strategically. So, understand your business requirements, audience and define marketing actions accordingly to take your business to the next level.

About The Author

Hardik Oza

Hardik Oza is an SEO consultant with more than 9 years of experience. He helps companies to grow their businesses. He shares his thoughts on additional publications like SEMrush, Search Engine People, and Social Media Today.

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