Today it seems like everyone is in a race to get the most followers. More followers on Instagram means more influence, while thousands of fans on Twitter means a bigger reach for your brand.
When you think about it this way, social media seems like one of the most valuable tools for a business to have (and 83% of marketers claim it’s important for their brand).
But actual statistics show that more consumers use email than any social media platform and that over half of people check their email before they check their social channels in the morning. With this information you could argue that, while social media seems like the most important asset a brand has, email is actually the preference of consumers.
Let’s dig into some key reasons why email marketing is better than social media marketing.
1. It’s More Personal
Consumers today crave deeper connections with the brands they buy from. Even in this digital-inspired age, where everything seems to be done behind the veil of a pixelated screen, people want to create more meaningful relationships – which is where email comes into it.
When you publish something on social media, you essentially have to wait for followers to scroll far enough down their feed to see it. And, with all the algorithms coming into play recently that prioritize content from friends and family, brands often find their posts disappearing into the abyss.
Email, on the other hand, gets delivered directly to someone’s inbox.
It’s a much more personal way to communicate with your customers because you’re basically talking one-on-one to them in a private place.
2. You Own Your List of Subscribers
Imagine spending countless hours building your social media following into something you’re proud of only to have the platform shut down and take all your lovely fans with it (think about what happened to Vine).
The problem with social media platforms is that they have control over your followers and you basically own nothing at all.
If Twitter closed its doors tomorrow, how many people would you suddenly have no contact with?
The difference with email is that you own your list of subscribers, whether that’s in a CRM somewhere or a simple Excel download. Once a subscriber has signed up for your list, you have access to them as long as they want to be on your list. You’re not at the mercy of the volatile and constantly-changing nature of the social media scene.
3. You Don’t Have to Compete With Algorithms
Social media platforms are dead set on giving consumers what they want – and that’s great. But sometimes this comes at the detriment of brands and businesses who are trying to get their products in front of an audience.
Platforms like Instagram and Facebook have drastically changed their algorithms in the past couple of years to reflect the wants and needs of their users. Namely, consumers want to see more posts from their family and friends than they do from brands.
This has meant brands have had to get creative in finding ways to stand out on personal feeds if they want to get any traction with their social media marketing at all.
Email has no such algorithms.
It’s pretty straight forward really: you send an email and it goes straight to the top of the recipient’s inbox.
4. You Get a Higher ROI
Here’s where we can bring the numbers in and things get juicy.
As a marketer, you’re probably constantly thinking about the ROI of the techniques you implement. It’s not worth spending time, energy, and money on a tactic that’s not bringing in any results, which is why email is your friend.
On average, 1 in 5 marketing emails get opened and they have an average clickthrough rate of 3.57%. Facebook, on the other hand, only has an average clickthrough rate of 0.07%. But it goes further than that. In fact, email marketing has the highest ROI of any marketing strategy, on average every company that spends $1 on email marketing can expect to earn $38 of revenue in return.
Email Marketing Trumps Social Media Marketing Every Time
It can be tempting to jump on the social media bandwagon and want to get as many followers as you can. But, with constantly-changing algorithms and the ever-present chance of a social media platform simply closing its doors, resting all your hopes, money, and dreams on social media could potentially lead to disaster.
Yes, tools like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are great for nurturing connections with your audience, generating leads, and spreading your brand’s reach, but when it really comes down to it, it’s email that gets results.
With a massive ROI (which completely overpowers the ROI of social media), email is a tactic that definitely needs to be in your strategy. You can land directly in recipient’s inboxes, build personal relationships, and you don’t have to compete with the whims of the social media world.
