Revolving debate between different types of digital marketing strategies is abundant in online sphere because we have just too many platforms to explore and utilize. Are you going to utilize location tagging platforms to promote, or deal making websites or PPC or facebook ads and so on? The list is ongoing and emerging every day.
The discussion of Email Marketing Versus Social Media Marketing is similar to the debate of SEO versus SMO. There is a difference in the method and the effectiveness of the both types of campaign. Let us explore each in details:
Real Time Presence
Unlike in Email Marketing, the Social Media marketing is based on real-time communication. Hence proactively participating at different social networking platform is a must for successful social media campaign. But in case of Email Marketing, the promotional campaign stays in the Inbox making the visibility of the Email Marketing more than that of social media.
Targeting Customers
Targeting Customer is much easier in terms of Email Marketing than in Social Media. In case of social media it is difficult to find your target customers and where they are engaging. For example, your target customers could be busy talking in Twitter or Facebook groups, or playing games on Facebook platforms or other mobile platforms. But in case of Email Marketing, the location or engagement of customer is irrelevant because their email inbox is their home. But in case of Email Campaigns, a lot needs to be done to generate targetable email subscribers to your campaign through lead generation mechanism.
Cross Promotion
Beside the difference, it is easier to encourage your email subscribers to become your social media fans and your social media fans to your email subscribers. A strong Emailer List is very important in case of Email Campaigns, further it is important to verify the credentials of each subscriber.
Content Strategy
Content is King in both types of campaign. But the recency and the rate at which content needs to be created in social media is much more demanding than in Email Marketing. In case of Social Media, you are continuously working to create content every day or every 12 hours. But in case of Email Campaigns, you can choose the timing based on weekly, biweekly, monthly or even quarterly.
Viral Campaigns
Before social media, email use to be the source of viral campaigns and it is still considered one of the ways to create viral campaigns. For example, email played a crucial role in increasing the user base of Facebook during its initial times. But now that crown is taken over by social media, the speed of viral campaigns is much faster and stronger in terms of social media than in terms of Email. This makes social media a strong place to start creating viral campaigns.
Fight is not the concern
Overall, the issue is not which is better but that how best you can utilize both the campaigns. SEO, Email Marketing and Social Media are the important gears of the same system and it is essential that each of them is in their place working best.
Image Source : yvetteschulz.com, eb2bleads.co.uk
