Until recently we have been faced with a period of experimentation and investigation into what works and doesn’t work in terms of social media. Whilst social campaigns grab the attention of the public and the media alike, email marketing seems to have been forced into the shadows a bit. But is social media a better way to reach customers than traditional digital marketing channels?

For the purpose of this post we can break both types of campaign down into 4 stages- Planning, Design, Execution & Measurement.

Planning- Figures show that last year eMail Marketing produced and ROI of 4000% at the same time every content share generated by social media held a value to the business of £1.76. It is widely known that both email marketing and social media marketing require very little expenditure, software that can help you design, automate and monitor your campaigns cost very little when compared with traditional media such as direct mail. Between the two, it is very difficult to identify which is more cost effective. Creating great looking HTML eMails requires investment in software but so does creating social media campaigns that are worth sharing and that generate results. The important point to remember is that both eMail Marketing and Social Media Marketing are flexible and can be planned to suit any budget.

The other main consideration when planning a campaign has to be your target audience. Although social media offers a huge and very broad audience (great for brand awareness), it is difficult to use any segmentation or targeting techniques to ensure you are sending your content to the relevant people. eMail marketing, especially when paired with an integrated CRM solution can offer virtually unlimited possibilities in terms of filtering and targeting, ensuring that your marketing messages are reaching the right people to maximise your lead generation.

Design- Much like the cost of your campaign the time spent designing your content for an eMail Marketing or Social Media campaign can suit your marketing resource. On the surface it appears that many social media platforms carry limitations on the volume of content and therefore can be produced in less time. However, to gain maximum impact through social media you will a lot of fresh content to be sent often, often meaning multiple posts a day. An eMail may take longer to write initially but does not require such regular posting and it has the potential to hold the reader’s attention for a longer period of time.

Execution- Social media boasts a 100% deliverability rate. Whether the messages sent are read is difficult to measure, however, content that is put out on social media sites is guaranteed to be delivered. eMails can be subject to more obstacles, mainly SPAM filters. One of the largest benefits of Social Media Marketing is the ease in which allows your audience to share your content and engage leading to increased brand loyalty and strong customer relationships.

Measurement- Tools to assist with the measurement of eMail marketing and Social media marketing are available, although it is still early days in terms of social media analytics. eMail Marketing offers extensive analytic tools for businesses to track and monitor their campaign results, plus can hold valuable lead information and accurately calculate the ROI on specific campaigns.

eMail Marketing may have been over shadowed by its more glamorous, on trend cousin- Social Media, but it is by no means a dead art.

eMail Marketing is still an extremely effective method of communicating with customers, especially in B2B organisations.

ProspectSoft provide a range of solutions to help you maximize the effectiveness of your eMail Marketing campaigns starting with detailed segmentation and targeting through CRM, to great looking email creation through our easy to use eMail creator and inclusive tracking and monitoring through our powerful analytics tool.