Today’s marketers include both social media and email in their arsenal. The combination makes for effective response to potential clients who’ve taken the first step of taking interest (e.g. subscribing, following etc).
But while they work well together, it’s good to know what sets them apart in order to keep them from tangling each other up.
First things first though, what do they have in common?
- They’re networks through which organizations connect to each other
- They allow you to share brand content
- They enable referrals and encourage reviews
- They indicate signs of trust when gaining subscribers and followers
From this, we can start pointing out where they split into two distinct forms of marketing communication:
Social Media
Being present on platforms like Facebook and Twitter can be like putting up a new window through which new kinds of customers can see your brand. That’s why social media is a common tool forbroadening a target market without more additional strain on your current B2B marketing budget. It’s also a more popular recourse to customer service to email because it’s faster to voice your concern on a company’s social media profile than in just a private email.
But in spite of that, this comes with risks to both your business and prospects. Because everyone’s free to post, expect to see comments that aren’t always favorable. No matter how well or quickly you respond, you could find more backlash in your feed the next day.
Hackers have been known to take over a company’s page and use it to make false information go viral. This has happened even to large, corporate accounts on social networks. Make sure your B2B marketers adopt strict password habits and social media policies before starting.
Email Marketing
Email marketing can be easily tracked and knowing the number of people who clicked your message says a lot more than those who just liked your posts.
Just make sure you don’t stop there and use lead nurturing strategies to drive those actions further down the funnel.
And unlike social media, emails don’t necessarily reach their target audience. Spam filters are more hard-wired than social media networks to swat down messages that contain typical words like (“free”, “cheap,” or “instant). Other risks include unappealing headlines and you can only have so many on your list ignoring your message.
As you can see, each carries a different sort of risk despite sharing the same advantages. These risks however are easily compensated by each other’s unique strength. Engagement on social media can indicate what type of headlines prompt responses (which in turns works well for subject lines in email). Emails can follow up on customer complaints and other inquiries derived from the stream of those who posted on your social media properties.