With the rise of social media networks and with platforms such as Facebook crossing over a billion users, you probably think that email marketing is dead.
But while it might be tempting to put all your efforts into social media, consider this fact: even with the popularity of social platforms, email marketing still has an ROI of $38 for every $1 you spend!
It might not be the new style, but email marketing is far from defunct.
You do not, however, have to choose between the two strategies; you can market through both email and social media. But if you had to pick one, email is the obvious choice.
There are five significant ways in which email marketing is excelling beyond the results offered by social media.
Email Marketing Is Superior
While that ROI statistic is still sinking in, let’s take a look at how the original method of digital marketing is still the king of the internet.
Keep in mind that you’ll need to build an email list before you’re able to leverage email marketing. After you’ve chosen hosting for your blog or website, set up a place on your homepage and in other relevant areas for readers to sign up for your newsletter. You’ll have a list of subscribers before you know it!
1. Email Marketing Offers a Wider Reach Than Social
A recent study performed by Marshall Mason at Social@Ogilvy discovered that organic reach on Facebook posts has completely crashed. In fact, the study even went so far as to say that without money to boost the posts, organic reach would eventually hit zero.
Take a look at this chart from the study:
In contrast to Facebook, email messages are much more effective at reaching your audience. In fact, studies have even shown that a message is five times more likely to be seen in email than on Facebook and that email is 40 times more effective at bringing in customers than Facebook or Twitter.
2. Email Marketing Offers Better Lead Generation
When people join your email list, they do so by entering their information voluntarily. Those decisions alone showcase an interest in your brand and your content. The opposite is true with social, which promotes your content via posts or advertisements.
Email marketing is unique in requiring this base level of interest. By allowing people to opt-in, you’re bringing new leads into your fold.
Furthermore, social media is filled with digital noise. Twitter, for example, generates over 500 million tweets per day! Cutting through that noise is next to impossible.
Meanwhile, the only competition you’re facing with email marketing is the other messages in the customer’s inbox. There will be other messages there, but not 500 million of them.
The odds of people seeing your content through email are much higher than they are through social media.Click To Tweet3. List Segmentation Offers Higher Conversion Rates
Unlike social media, email marketing allows you to decide which members of your email list see what content. In a practice called list segmentation, you can separate your email subscribers based on various factors. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Demographics, such as age, location, and gender
- Buying practices
- How long they’ve been subscribers
- What type of content they would be interested in (informational, promotional, etc.)
According to DMA, segmenting your email subscribers and sending targeted email has been proven to contribute up to 58% of all revenue. Everything, from open rates to click-through rates, skyrockets when you organize your list and create targeted emails for the different types of subscribers you have.
Social media offers something similar in the way that ads are targeted to users, but it’s not nearly as effective as email list segmentation.Click To Tweet4. Email Marketing Offers Better Engagement
The direct nature of email immediately offers a more personalized experience than an ad on Facebook or Twitter does. As technology continues to develop, innovators are becoming ever more adept at customizing clients’ experiences with email.
A perfect example of this developing technology is the use of autoresponders, which have been known not only to create more personalized experiences but also to accelerate your conversion rates.
Using autoresponders, you can immediately send exclusive messages to customers when they take an action, even if you just want to say “thank you” when they’ve made a purchase.
In terms of engagement:
- 74% of marketers say that targeted emails increase customer engagement.
- Personalized emails improve click-through rates by an average of 14%.
- Open rates are highest when companies send two emails per month.
The targeted nature of modern email marketing represents huge potential for engagement and conversions when compared to social media.
5. Email Has More Active Users Than Social Media
When we hear that Facebook has over 1.65 billion monthly active users, that’s certainly impressive. What’s even more impressive is that 54% of them are using the service on mobile. We know that mobile is quickly becoming the way of the future, but how does email stack up?
Pretty well, actually:
- The total number of email accounts worldwide is expected to cross 4.3 billion by the end of 2016.
- 92% of online adults use email and 61% use it on a daily basis.
- U.S. companies send 1.47 million emails per month with the global average being 1.38 million.
Final Thoughts
While email marketing is absolutely more effective than social media marketing, the two can co-exist. For example, you can use social media to bring more people to your email list.
Still, email marketing is a powerful tool every business should be using. It simply offers more engagement with less effort.
Let us know in the comments which type of marketing gives you the best results !
Garret Henry
Latest posts by Garret Henry (see all)
- 5 Ways That Email Marketing Beats Social Media Marketing - July 24, 2016
Tips and tricks are really helpful. Enjoyed your article a lot. Keep blogging
Email marketing is incredibly powerful. There are lots of marketers out there who do not use it because they think it is too much trouble – and it not worth the effort. They are very wrong in my opinion.
Hello Rama,
Thanks for your comment. Yes, it seems that email is a far more lucrative choice than social media, at least in the beginning.
– Garret
Hello Jason,
Yes, I agree that reaching the inbox is the most challenging aspect. I personally use MailChimp for my needs. Thanks for reading.
– Garret
Hello Sylvester,
I couldn’t agree more! We’re so used to email that we’ve lost touch on how large of a role it plays in our daily lives. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
Hello Sarfraz,
Thank you for reading! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it.
– Garret
Hey nice post….Is there any strategy for doing marketing in every social networking sites… I find you post very interesting and now I am having so many questions. So, I need your help for that…..
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Hello Morris,
Thank you for reading the post, I’m glad it got you thinking about other strategies! For social media, I would first recommend that you approach your strategy on 1-2 platforms only., at least in the beginning. Trying to create a strategy across all social media platforms is going to spread you far too thin.
Instead, find out where your audience is most active, and where your competitors are having the most success. These are the platforms you should focus your efforts on, since your audience is already there.
Thanks again!
– Garret
Interesting point, Email Marketing campaigns can be monitored and instant reports obtained. Experts are required in the use of this tool, there are several advantages of email marketing.
Hello,
Thank you for reading! Yes, while some tools do require an expert’s hand, there are plenty of tools that are designed for every skill level. The advantages of email marketing are indeed numerous!
Thanks again for reading!
– Garret
Whew, I really love this article it’s so informative and kinda eye-opener for the beginners. Online marketing is definitely difficult but, I am pretty sure by simply following this stats it will make easy and hassle free. Thank you for the share, Garret.
Hello Frieda,
So glad to hear you enjoyed the post! It’s amazing what kind of potential email marketing has for your business. Most brands forget about it and get swept up in other, more expensive types of marketing, but email is truly the cornerstone of any successful strategy.
Thanks again for reading, and for your comment!
– Garret
Email marketing is an important part of digital marketing.
Check out various tools that are used for the purpose of marketing, advertising, SEO, CRO, maintaining social media account, social media campaign, etc. all available at BetaPage (https://betapage.co/) now grow your business effectively.
Hello Richa,
Email marketing is indeed an important part of the puzzle. Tools are the other major piece that many brands need to focus on. Thanks for sharing!
– Garret
Marketing Beats Social Media is It Right In My Opinion this is Not Right Because Peoples Do their Marketing Via Social Media
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Hello Lalita,
While it’s true that email marketing does indeed tend to perform better than social media, that doesn’t mean you should cut out social media entirely. Instead, it simply means that email should be an important part of your strategy, along with other channels like search and social media.
Hopefully that alleviates your concern. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
Hello Garret..! So many webpage showing different ideas, but your email marketing content is sound interesting for me. Glad to have this..!
Charles Lowe would love you to read ..Internet Marketing Benefits for Business Owners
Hello Charles,
Yes, that’s the beauty of modern marketing, there’s no answer that’s 100% right. Instead, there are numerous winning strategies and tactics. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
We can’t ignore the fact still there are about 2.5 billion email users worldwide. This post really helped me to learn so much thing about email marketing. thanks keep sharing
Hello John,
I couldn’t agree more. Email is more alive than it has ever been! Thanks for reading.
– Garret
Hello Garret..! I completely agree in you bro, now I am starting collecting emails, moreover, I will share this page into my friends who doing social media marketing also. Thanks!
Lorraine Vazquez would love you to read ..Internet Marketing Benefits for Business Owners
Hello Lorraine,
Thank you for reading! I’m glad to hear you’ve started your email marketing efforts. I think social media is another piece of the puzzle, but people should never ignore the power of email marketing either!
Thank again!
– Garret
Hello Garret … Excellent showing powerful tips for social marketing, everyone will follow this for sure.
Thank for sharing this should be follow.
Andrew Woodson would love you to read ..Internet Marketing Benefits for Business Owners
Hello Andrew,
Yes, social media and email marketing are two powerful tools, especially when used together to create even wider-reaching marketing campaigns.
Thanks for reading!
– Garret
It’s old saying that list is in the money. And in my opinion, email marketing is still working well (at least for me 😉 ). But we are taking efforts to promote content on social media as well.
Want to ask you one thing, what do you think about browser push notifications? Let me know.
Edward Henry would love you to read ..SiteGround vs A Small Orange – Reasons to Choose SiteGround
Hi Edward,
I think you meant “the money is in the list” and it is true that having a responsive list makes all the difference. I’m actually better on Twitter than email partly because I get so much of it I dread looking at it.
Browser push notifications may be more popular among certain people for specific websites. So far I have not accepted them from ANY site because I know how easily that could end up being like the email spam that sucks up so much of my time.
That said, I could see myself accepting them on a site I was particularly interested in. And I suspect most people won’t avoid them for the reason I do which is that I work online and don’t want to have many interruptions while I’m working.
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I agree with you, but as compared to email lists click rate of web push notifications is high so we will see what happens 🙂
Edward Henry would love you to read ..SiteGround – The Smart Choice for WordPress Hosting
Hello Edward,
I agree with Gail in that push notifications can walk the line between informative and spammy. Me personally, I don’t usually accept them, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a place for them. Like any new marketing tool, it’s best to test it out in a controlled experiment and measure your results to see if it’s a strategy that could work for you.
Thanks!
– Garret
Hello Garret Henry,
Thanks to share us such a wonderful article.
E-mail marketing is really awesome tools but is think we can’t ignore social media as well because it’s give you a wide rage of your targeted audience.
Above article well explained about the active user, Yes I experienced you can easily targate your Active user by Email marketing.
Thanks for the article, keep posting…
Hello Fourtek,
Thanks for the comment! Yes, while email can perform better than social media, that doesn’t mean you should abandon social media marketing. Instead, you should recognize the potential in both and prioritize accordingly.
When you find opportunities to combine the two, you’ll have some truly epic campaigns on your hands. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
It’s good But now days social media is on like. Everyone want to like use social media because its interesting , informative. Here easy to gain traffic.
Hello,
Yes, social media is indeed popular, and should not be ignored. However, for the growing business, email is just as important, if not more so, than social media. I think both should be part of your strategy, but for long-term success, email should be at the foundation of your marketing.
Thanks for reading!
– Garret
Thanks for sharing such a informative and descriptive post regarding email marketing , it is very useful article for me because i am going to start email marketing . Thanks a lot once again .
John would love you to read ..Hello world!
Hello John,
You’re quite welcome, thank you for the comment! I’m happy to hear that your starting an email marketing strategy. Best of luck to you!
– Garret
Dear Sir,
Thanks For Such Social Media Ideas Sharing. Your Article is very Useful for Social Media Works.. Nice Ideas Indeed..
Hello,
No problem at all! Email marketing is truly the foundation of any solid marketing strategy. Thank you for reading and sharing!
– Garret
I really confused what is the best policy to increase my business area email marketing or social media marketing.But now i clear .Thanks for excellent post.
Hello Rasel,
Glad to hear the post helped you understand better. Email marketing is the best place to start, but social media can easily become a large part of your success as well. Thanks for reading.
– Garret
Thanks for making the case extremely well Garret!
There is no doubt, opt in email and or mobile marketing,
offers far more potential for customization, like you pointed!
And thanks for sharing so many eye opening stats!
Your extremely well written blog post, definitely proves email
marketing is far from dead!Thanks!
Mark would love you to read ..What Do Savvy Entrepreneurs Know About Effective Lead Generation Their Major Competitors Don’t? Part Three
Hello Mark,
Thank you for reading, and for your insightful comment! I absolutely agree that email is far from dead, and hopefully others will see this as well when they read the post. Thanks again!
– Garret
Hi Henry,
I am sure that there are things that you have shared are good. And really there is no doubt that email marketing is better than social media.
I also give more preference to emails than social media.
Hello Robin,
Glad to hear it! I think the two can certainly work together, but email should not be left out of the picture. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
Thank you so much for such a helpful post which is full of information post. As I am new in this blogging arena but i can say that this is very helpfull. This post really helped me to learn so much thing about email marketing and you have a done a good job in article writing. Commenting is really a good building system.
Hello Anand,
Your’e very welcome! As a new blogger, it’s important to build an email list that you can expand upon as you grow. This will forge a loyal following for your new blog! Thanks for reading.
– Garret
Well, I do agree with what you said. Although there billions active users are interacting with your business, the email marketing is still a majority important to any businesses.
You can’t always sent the private message to your clients or prospective everyday. But if you can do, you’re almost impossible to sent it to hundreds of those people as Facebook will put your in the jail.
The single solution is only the email marketing and newsletters. As far as I knew over 95% of buyers is return reader or subscriber.
Hello Kimsea,
I agree, email allows you to reach more people in your audience than social media. Trying to accomplish that kind of reach on Facebook would be almost impossible. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
Hello,
You explain such a amazing about mail marketing and social media. Both are useful and you explain indeed awesome on it. So thank you very much.
Hello Kinjal,
I’m so happy you enjoyed the post! Email marketing and social media are both very useful indeed, but it’s important to understand how they each affect your brand’s success. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
.
Thanks for sharing information on email marketing . All of your 5 points are great. It’s really helpful
Hello Willian,
Of course, I’m always happy to help! Email marketing is an excellent approach for any brand that’s looking to grow.
– Garret
Hello Garrat,
That’s pretty impressiveGarrat and thanks for sharing your email marketing knowledge with your reader.
I for one know that consistency is the key and staying on track with the content that you share. I know that if you are writing about a topic that you know and love then it’s much easier to stay on track.
I know that will help a lot of people who are seeking to get information about email marketing. I appreciate you sharing this with us all.
Dhiren Choudhary
Hello Dhiren,
Thank you for your comment! Yes, consistency is key when creating content, and when sending email newsletters to your subscribers. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
Recommended article about email marketing . We can beat easily social media for this article instruction .Its really a awesome idea for email marketing, Thanks a lot for sharing .
Shahadat would love you to read ..Gp Off Sim Offer 2016
Hello Shahadat,
I couldn’t agree more! Email marketing offers a lot more for brands looking to grow. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
Hello,
Your explanation email marketing and social media marketing are awesome. I think it is best information. Indeed thank you very much for sharing.
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Hello Taylor,
I’m glad you enjoyed the explanation! Email marketing and social media are both excellent avenues for your marketing ventures!
– Garret
I don’t think so. Because nowadays social media is people’s first and foremost choice. These days face book, insta gram, twitter etc are more in trend.
Hello Emma,
While I agree that social media is at the front of everyone’s attention, it does not offer the same ROI or reach as email marketing. That being said, both are important. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
your knowledge about e mail marketting is very good.
its awsome
thanks for sharing
keep it up
Hello Emma,
Practice makes perfect. Hopefully this information will help you build an email marketing campaign of your own!
– Garret
I don’t think so. You are showing old statistics(2014).
One more thing google segregate the mails into Primary, Social and Promotional with this advanced option user may not go through the mail.
Most of the mail services occupied by the Gmail. Ultimately Email marketer receive very few clicks from the campaign
These days social media (Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc) are more in trend. more users are using social media.
Final best option behind the marketer is social media promotion.
Ultimate marketing approach is Paid or Organic Activities along with E-Mail Marketing.
Hello,
I agree that social media and search marketing are very popular, but email marketing still provides a strong foundation for connecting with your customers and building a loyal following for your brand.
Truly successful brands will find that a mixture of these tactics are the best approach. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
Hello Garrat,
Ya you will correct now a days e mail marketing is the great used by people compared to social media.I think both are useful for generate traffic. Indeed you sharing awesome information.
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Hello Savya,
Yes, it’s all about how you use your strategies to benefit the growth of your brand and your traffic. In this case, both social media and email marketing are great for that purpose.
– Garret
this a very wonderful article discussion about email marketing topic . i like this type topic and thanks for sharing.
Hello,
I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Email marketing is something we don’t talk about often enough as marketers, so I’m just trying to keep the conversation moving. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
I think nothing is superior or bad in digital world, because every aspect is important. One can run the industry only on one aspect of DIGITAL MARKETING. But i liked the benefits and bifurcation given between both the aspects.
Hello Siddhant,
Yes, you are exactly right. Every aspect is indeed important when it comes to digital marketing. Thank you for your comment!
– Garret
Hi, First of All Thank You So Much, You have shared very helpful and most beneficial knowledge about Email Marketing and Social Media. Today I have learned something about it. Thanks for shared.
Asif would love you to read ..How to Embed Google Map on Site/Blog
Hello Asif,
Thank you for the kind comment! I’m glad to hear you’ve learned something new about social media and email marketing.
– Garret
Ya, My thoughts are also same regarding email marketing. But, I think collecting more subscribers is a tough task for new bloggers.
Hello Sunny,
Yes, it can be difficult to gather new subscribers, but it’s a lot easier if you have something to offer in return. A free download or exclusive newsletter, for example, goes a long way. Thanks for reading!
– Garret
Thank you for sharing such a brilliant post about Email marketing & Social Media, In my view Email marketing can have more lead generation than social media marketing, Social media is more useful to reach the more people in less time, but Engagement will not be Good at Social media.
Hello Jessica,
Thank you for reading! Understanding the role that each type of marketing plays in your overall strategy is absolutely important. Thanks again!
– Garret
Its really a great idea to marketing called e-mail marketing, thank you very much for sharing this nice information here wuith us.
Hello Taufeeq,
Of course, I’m always happy to help! Thank you for your comment, and best of luck to you in your email marketing ventures!
– Garret
I was stuck over using the email marketing, but after reading this article ,got the clear views about it. Thanks for such helpful and informative article!
Hello Deepika,
I’m glad to hear my post cleared things up for you! Email marketing is truly special when used in the proper ways. Thanks for reading!
– Garret