Email marketing or social media: What should I choose?
It’s the age-old question for any business trying to make a splash online: Where should you focus your marketing efforts? Should you be constantly tweeting, posting, and reeling in followers on social media? Or should your main focus be on building an email list and sending out carefully crafted messages?
The short answer is, of course, both.
But if you’re a business owner, especially one looking to grow sustainably and build real relationships with your customers, understanding the fundamental differences – and the long-term power of each – is absolutely crucial.
Let’s break it down.
Instant Gratification and Broad Reach (Social Allure is Real)
There’s no denying the immediate appeal of social media. So, no brand has to give up on it. This isn’t about a singular choice between email marketing or social media. Use both, that’s what my uncle would say.
Platforms like Youtube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) offer incredible opportunities:
- Massive Audiences: Billions of people are scrolling through social feeds every day. This offers unparalleled reach, allowing you to get your brand in front of a huge number of potential customers, often very quickly.
- Discovery and Virality: Social media is fantastic for discovery. A clever post, a funny video, or an engaging challenge can go viral, skyrocketing your brand’s visibility overnight.
- Brand Personality: These platforms are perfect for showcasing your brand’s voice, values, and personality through engaging content, stories, and behind-the-scenes glimpses.
- Direct Interaction: You can engage directly with your audience, answer questions, run polls, and get instant feedback, fostering a sense of community.
- Targeted Ads: Social media advertising tools are incredibly powerful, allowing you to pinpoint specific demographics, interests, and behaviors with your paid campaigns.
For new businesses, social media can be a launchpad. It’s where you announce your presence, create buzz, and start building an initial following. It’s a vital tool for top-of-funnel awareness and driving traffic. But that’s not how you end the email marketing or social debate. There’s more to the story…
The Understated Power of Email: Your Owned Channel
While social media dazzles with its speed and scale, email marketing quietly builds something far more valuable: a direct, owned channel of communication with your audience. Before you go off trying to decide on when it comes to email marketing or social media, get this:
- You Own Your List: This is the single most important distinction. On social media, you’re essentially renting space. If a platform changes its algorithm, goes out of business, or decides to suspend your account, your audience access can vanish overnight. With email, your list is yours. No one can take it away from you.
- Direct, Personal Connection: An email lands directly in someone’s inbox. It’s a more personal space than a public social feed. This allows for more intimate, detailed, and personalized conversations.
- Higher Conversion Rates: Email consistently outperforms social media when it comes to driving sales and conversions. People on your email list have explicitly opted in to hear from you, indicating a higher level of interest and intent. They are often further down the purchasing funnel.
- Detailed Analytics: Modern email platforms provide robust analytics, allowing you to see exactly who opened your emails, what they clicked, and even what actions they took on your website afterward. This data is gold for optimizing your strategy.
- Automation and Segmentation: This is where tools like Klaviyo truly shine. You can set up automated email sequences (called “flows”) for specific actions: a welcome series when someone signs up, an abandoned cart reminder, a post-purchase follow-up, or even a birthday discount. You can also segment your audience into hyper-targeted groups, ensuring the right message reaches the right person at the right time.
Email marketing is less about discovery and more about nurturing. It’s about taking that initial interest sparked by social media or other channels and transforming it into loyalty, repeat purchases, and a thriving customer relationship.
It’s not email marketing or Social media at all – it’s equal parts email and social. Maybe more email as you start and grow your list.
Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore Email (Especially for E-commerce)
For e-commerce businesses, email marketing isn’t just important; it’s non-negotiable. Consider these scenarios:
- Abandoned Carts: Imagine a customer fills their online cart but doesn’t complete the purchase. A timely, automated email reminding them of their cart (perhaps with a small incentive) can recover a significant percentage of those lost sales. This is almost impossible to do effectively at scale with social media.
- Post-Purchase Engagement: After someone buys from you, email allows you to send order confirmations, shipping updates, product usage tips, cross-sell/upsell recommendations, and solicit reviews. This builds trust and encourages repeat business.
- Personalized Recommendations: Based on past purchases or Browse behavior, you can send highly relevant product recommendations, making customers feel understood and valued.
- Building a Community: Beyond sales, email newsletters can be a powerful way to share valuable content, company news, and foster a deeper connection with your audience, transforming customers into brand advocates.
These are all functions that email, powered by platforms designed for automation and personalization (like Klaviyo), can handle with unparalleled efficiency and effectiveness. Social media just isn’t built for this level of deep, individualized communication and lifecycle management.
Social brings in exposure and visibility. Email drives revenue because of the relationships you are ale to build. That’s why, email marketing or social media question in your head is a useless one.
Email Marketing Or Social Media? The Synergistic Approach – Using Both Together
So, which should you prioritize? What’s your pick? Email marketing or Social media?
The answer isn’t an either/or. It’s about leveraging the strengths of each.
- Use Social Media for:
- Brand awareness and discovery.
- Driving traffic to your website.
- Directing people to sign up for your email list.
- Showcasing personality and building community.
- Customer service and quick interactions.
- Running targeted advertising campaigns.
- Use Email Marketing for:
- Nurturing leads and building relationships.
- Driving conversions and sales.
- Recovering abandoned carts.
- Encouraging repeat purchases and customer loyalty.
- Delivering personalized content and offers.
- Providing essential transactional messages.
- Building an asset (your list) that you fully control.
Email marketing or social media have roles to play. How audiences — your potential customers engage with content on either of the mediums is drastically different.
Think of social media as the “front door” – it’s where you welcome new people and make a great first impression. Email marketing is the “living room” – it’s where you invite them in, have deeper conversations, and build lasting relationships.
By strategically using social media to grow your email list, and then using email to convert and retain those subscribers, you create a powerful, self-reinforcing marketing ecosystem. Don’t put all your eggs in someone else’s basket. Build your owned audience through email marketing, and use social media to continually feed that growth. It’s the smart, sustainable path to long-term business success.
Between Email marketing or Social Media, what are you going to choose?
Already have a Klaviyo account? How are you using it exactly? Are you set-up the right way? Get a Klaviyo email marketing audit to find out where you stand.