When you’re growing a business, one thing is always on your mind – what’s the easiest and most effective way to build a loyal audience?
When you’re considering the right approach, the options can feel overwhelming. Email marketing and social media are by far the most popular methods, but which one is better for your business?
The truth is, it all depends on your goals, your audience, and your resources. In this blog post, we’ll look at the strengths and limitations of email marketing and social media and help you to make a choice that suits you and your business.
We’ll also explain how to use ScoreApp in conjunction with both channels so you can take audience-building to the next level.
Let’s get started!
Why this comparison matters
Email marketing and social media are both well-known staples of effective audience-building strategies, but on closer inspection, they serve very different purposes.
Email marketing offers direct, personal communication with prospects who have already expressed an interest in your business, while social media is able to reach a broader, untapped audience and foster community engagement.
Understanding this distinction is crucial. Because, when you nail down your objective and choose the right tool—or better yet, use both effectively—you’ll see stronger engagement, better conversions, and faster business growth.
Email marketing explained
First, let’s look at email marketing, a tried-and-tested method to reach and engage your ideal audience directly. Because of its highly personal approach, email marketing has long been the bedrock of many successful businesses.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is all about direct communication. It involves sending personalised, targeted messages to a list of subscribers who have opted in to hear from your business. When done right, it allows you to segment and nurture leads, build trust, and drive actions like purchases, sign-ups, or downloads.
Why businesses love email marketing
- Direct and personal connection: Your emails land straight in a recipient’s inbox and offer a level of personalisation that’s hard to achieve elsewhere.
- Ownership of your audience: Unlike social media platforms that deploy fickle algorithms or hard-to-grasp policies, your email list is yours to control.
- Data-driven insights: Trackable metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions make it easy to measure success and refine your strategies.
- High ROI: Email marketing hasn’t done away for a reason – it consistently delivers one of the best returns on investment in digital marketing.
When to use email marketing
Email marketing is a great choice when your goal is to nurture existing leads with tailored content that hits home. It’s ideal for sharing offers, exclusive updates, or longer-form content like newsletters, so you can maintain regular, meaningful communication.
It works particularly well for businesses with an established audience because it allows you to deepen engagement with your prospects and drive conversions by delivering highly relevant, valuable messages to their inboxes.
Social media explained
Now let’s turn our attention to social media. With its huge global reach (over 5 billion users worldwide) and creative potential, social media offers businesses a golden opportunity to connect with audiences.
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing involves creating and sharing engaging content on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok in order to build brand awareness, foster community, and drive new traffic to your website or services.
Why businesses love social media marketing
- Broad reach: Social media platforms allow businesses to reach millions of potential customers, often with minimal upfront investment.
- Engagement opportunities: Social media fosters real-time conversations, which allows your audience to interact with you and your brand directly.
- Content sharing: Your posts can be shared, thus amplifying your reach organically through your audience’s networks.
- Creative flexibility: Imaginative visuals, videos, stories, and live sessions offer endless content ideas to show off your brand’s personality.
When to use social media marketing
Social media marketing is fantastic for attracting new audiences and increasing your brand’s visibility. It’s perfect for sharing bite-sized, visually appealing content like testimonials, fun behind-the-scenes moments, or engaging competitions.
Social platforms are also great for running interactive campaigns like polls or giveaways, which will help you start conversations and find engagement with new and existing followers.
Email marketing vs. social media: how to choose
Deciding whether to focus on email marketing or social media depends on your goals and audience.
Here’s a closer look at how each option stacks up:
1. Functionality
Each tool serves a distinct purpose. Email marketing is best for nurturing and converting leads, while social media is perfect for increasing brand awareness and community-building.
2. Ease of use
Email marketing requires skill with email software, but its automation features make it very easy to scale. Social media, on the other hand, is simple to start but demands consistent time and effort to maintain visibility and traction.
3. Data and insights
With email marketing, you can track your open and click-through rates, which gives you precise insights into campaign performance. Social media provides engagement metrics like likes, shares, and comments but it can be harder to tie directly to conversions.
4. Audience type
Email marketing works well for businesses with an established audience that’s ready to engage on a deeper level. Social media is most valuable when you want to reach new audiences or build your brand’s visibility.
5. Cost and value
Email marketing delivers a higher ROI for a reasonable cost. Social media is free to start, but paid advertising campaigns can quickly increase your expenses.
ScoreApp: The bridge between email and social media
Many businesses find that success is best achieved using email marketing and social media in tandem.However, managing them together can be time-consuming and challenging.
And that’s where ScoreApp comes in!
Here’s how:
- Interactive lead magnets: With ScoreApp, it’s easy to create quizzes and scorecards that generate high-quality leads. When you promote these on social media to capture attention, you can collect email addresses for follow-ups.
- Seamless integrations: ScoreApp integrates effortlessly with your chosen email marketing tool, and allows you to segment and nurture your new leads through personalised emails.
- Social sharing made simple: Scorecards are super-easy to share on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, which gives you new content and a fun and effective way to deliver value and attract new leads.
There’s no need to choose or feel overwhelmed. ScoreApp simply enhances the strengths of email and social media marketing, enabling you to build your audience without spreading yourself too thin.
How to combine email marketing and social media for maximum impact
The most successful businesses use both channels in harmony, and here’s how you can too:
Use social media to grow your email list
Run campaigns that direct followers to sign up for your email newsletter or take a quiz. For example, when you promote a ScoreApp scorecard on Instagram you can capture new leads and add them to your email list.
Use email to amplify social media
Include your social links to posts in your newsletters in order to drive traffic back to your social platforms. This will help you to create a loop of engagement between your email and social audiences.
Run ScoreApp campaigns on both channels
Share your ScoreApp lead magnets widely on social media and follow up with personalised email campaigns. This way, you’ll engage your audience at multiple touchpoints and see stronger results.
Find your perfect audience-building strategy with ScoreApp
Both email marketing and social media are powerful tools for building an audience.
Want to build brand awareness and attract new leads? Social media is best.
Need to nurture those leads into loyal customers? Email marketing is the way forward.
With ScoreApp in your corner, you don’t have to choose just one way to build an audience. Through seamless integration with both methods, ScoreApp allows you to attract, engage, and convert new leads effortlessly.
Whether you’re sending personalised emails, running interactive scorecards, or sharing your brand’s story on social media, ScoreApp is the integration you need to drive results.
Ready to build an audience that delivers new leads and sales?
Try ScoreApp for FREE and discover how its can transform your email and social media strategies into a seamless, lead-generating powerhouse!
