We’ve all heard people say that email is dying or that social will eventually replace email, but the truth is that both channels are still here and are stronger than ever. Email remains the preferred marketing channel for 73% of consumers, while social media is one of the most popular online activities with over 3.2 billion users worldwide.
So, the question is not which is better, but how can we make them work together effectively? For starters, it’s important to understand each channel’s strengths.
Social Media’s Strengths:
- Building brand recognition and loyalty
- Driving website traffic
- Creating a community
Social is a great way to reach new audiences, but you can’t always control who sees your message. Each social platform has an algorithm that can restrict your organic reach. Boosted posts or paid ads are the keys to targeting your content on social. This doesn’t necessarily require a lot of money, but if you don’t have any budget for paid social this could be a good time to use email instead.
Email’s Advantages:
- Building lasting customer relationships
- Converting subscribers to customers
- Personalization and targeting
With just a few pieces of subscriber information, you can create highly personalized and targeted emails (controlling who sees your message). While social is best used for reaching new customers, that isn’t the case for email. It’s most powerful for reaching prospects who are at the bottom of the sales funnel, since they have already professed interest in your product or service. Once people have subscribed to your email program, they want to (and expect to) receive your offers and sales messages. Cutting through the inbox clutter these days can be tricky, though, since about 293 billion emails are sent per day worldwide.
Using social and email together is an effective marketing practice
Now that we know when to use each channel, here are the ways that they can be used together to complement each other:
Social media is a great way to grow your email subscriber list.
Create posts and ads that drive to an email sign-up form on your website, build an email sign-up form on your Facebook page, or create a Facebook community that requires members to provide email addresses. You can also use an incentive (e.g., a whitepaper download or access to an exclusive event) on sign-up forms to gain even more traction.
Grow your social followers by promoting your accounts in your emails.
This can be easily done by adding icons (and links) to the header or footer of your email templates. Take this one step further by designing an email that promotes your social channels and the benefits each channel can offer. This tactic is a great way to get your email subscribers to also follow you on social.
Create a cohesive brand story across both channels.
Using the same content (adapted for each medium) with a similar tone and narrative across both social media and email will help reinforce your message while reaching a broader audience. For example, if there’s a great video you want to share, use both social and email to highlight it. Cross-promote social contests and generated content in your emails. You can also feature trending hashtags, guest photos of events you’ve hosted (ask permission for photos), and top user reviews of your product or service.
On the flip side, you can place social ads targeting your email subscribers to direct them to specific content. Upload your email list to Facebook and serve ads only to those who have subscribed, and also separate your list into segments to show the most relevant content to each group. You can also create lookalike audiences to reach people who have similar qualities and interests as those on your email list, giving you the advantage of targeting a new audience.
Email marketing and social media are both necessary for a well-rounded digital marketing strategy. One is not better or more important than the other. Each has strengths and weaknesses, so combining them can only lead to better results.
Need help with your social media or email marketing strategy? Our expert team is available and happy to help.