Apples vs. Oranges – That is what email marketing, as opposed to social media marketing, is all about. Each of them serves their own purpose in the company’s marketing and brand management strategy. It is pretty hard to ascertain which one is better.
Social media has risen to become a major fixture of the online digital marketing landscape. It is easy to see why many are using social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and it helps to increase brand visibility.
On the other hand, Email has been around for a long time now. It might be less intriguing than social media, but hey, old is always gold! Email is still very much alive and is not going away. It can be as effective as its charismatic social media cousins.
Here’s a rundown of how social media and Email marketing compete with each other:
- Reach
Social media has one significant benefit than Email: It provides the possibility of going viral. The content and posts are shared extensively on social media. Sky is the limit when it comes to the exposure of social media as opposed to Email.
However, going viral is not an easy thing to do. Companies should understand the potential of social media’s reach and deliver high-quality content in order to gain deeper exposure.
- Click Rate
As a marketer, you want results. So, which one drives more ‘click-throughs’ – email or social media? You might be surprised to find the answer is actually Email. If you don’t believe us, statistics show us that one out of five marketing emails is opened with a click-through rate of 3.57%. Comparably on Facebook, one can expect a ‘click-through rate’ of only 0.07%.
Why is this? People tend to check and open their Email content. With Facebook and other social media, the content can be ignored amidst all the hustle and bustle of scrolling down continuously.
- Conversions and ROI
Again the winner of this segment is Email Marketing. Email tends to be more effective as it has a well-segmented target list. Paid social media ads also let you tweak your audience according to demographics, however, with Email you can deliver highly targeted messages to a specific group of subscribers.
With a good conversion rate, the ROI with Email marketing is also cost-effective. If design and content are efficient, Email marketing is less expensive to deploy and yields good conversions. In fact, the median ROI according to a study by US marketers in 2016 has concluded that Email yields 122% and social media come at a distant second place of 28%.
Is there a Winner?
No, marketing management initiatives should have a mix of both Email and Social media marketing so that the business can stay on top of the competition. Both of them have their own share of advantages and disadvantages.