It might be challenging to decide at first whether email marketing or social media marketing is best for a company. These are two of the most recent and commonly used methods of reaching potential customers in the modern day. Small and medium-sized businesses can use email marketing and social media marketing campaigns to reach as many potential customers as they can, gaining conversions from those who might have otherwise gone through the cracks.
One of the most common forms of marketing is email marketing. Email is here to stay, according to Statista, which projects that by 2025 there will be 4.6 billion email users worldwide. Marketing managers trying to maximize their resources should not ignore this big demographic of potential customers.
More than 306 billion emails are sent and received daily, according to Statista. About a quarter of the marketing emails sent are opened and the average click-through rate is much lower, standing around 2%. These performance figures appear to be rather low at first glance. The economics of scale are used in email marketing to demonstrate ROI. A raw number of conversions from an unexplored market can be obtained from marketing emails with a 2% clickthrough rate. This makes email marketing a scaleable, reasonably priced strategy for enterprises.
A far broader approach to digital marketing is social media marketing. By giving your company the chance to shape and curate the public’s impression of a brand, a successful social media campaign engages your audience. Therefore, social media marketing is a gentler method of advertising a good or service. According to a study published in the International Journal of Marketing, nearly two-thirds of customers take into account the perception social media has given them of a product when considering a purchase. Social media’s soft approach is focused on attracting customers by creating a positive perception of a brand.
It is impossible to overstate the impact of social media when it comes to connecting with clients and gaining their business. The conversion and clickthrough rates of effective social media marketing initiatives, which hover around 2-5%, are comparable to those of email marketing campaigns. The use of social media for marketing is also a game of numbers.
As long as a company is aware of who its target audience is, it can benefit from social media marketing. Compared to an email marketing campaign, social media marketing takes more hands-on management because online culture changes so quickly and keeping a positive public image is an ongoing battle. Compared to email marketing, social media marketing is a far more data-driven marketing strategy. Knowing your target demographic, the social media platforms they are most likely to use, and the hours they are online is essential for effective social media marketing. Due to the complexity of the social media marketing dance, either a dedicated social media manager is needed, or social media management solutions must be used.
Social media and email marketing are excellent since they are inexpensive and have a low entrance barrier. This means that in order to reach a larger audience, firms often profit from allocating funds for both social media and email marketing. A synergistic result will also be produced by the two initiatives.
Customers can receive surveys via email marketing, helping organizations better understand their target market. In order to provide material more efficiently and create a suitable image for the company running the campaign, a clearer picture can then be used in social media marketing efforts. In contrast, social media campaigns can support email marketing initiatives by reminding customers of promotions that have already been distributed through email channels and motivating social media audiences who haven’t joined an email list to overcome task inertia and join the roster.
While social media marketing enables your company to reach a large audience and engage with customers in a more direct and rapid way, it can easily turn into a time-consuming process.
Email marketing is a more resource-friendly kind of digital marketing because it involves less precise targeting and real-time modifications. 33% of marketers, according to Databox, only send one email each week, and even fewer (25%) send more than one email per month. This lack of regularity provides marketers time to prepare and create engaging content that will probably result in long-term conversions.
Both forms of marketing are inexpensive, but if a business has a limited budget, email marketing might be the most economical approach to reach a large audience. Small businesses with a clear understanding of their industry or large companies with extra funds for a professional social media manager are most suited for social media marketing on their own. A combination of the two marketing strategies will, in theory, yield the best results, especially for mid-sized enterprises that are expanding quickly.
