Which Drives More Sales: Email or Social Media?
We know that 60% of consumers sign up for brand emails with the expectation of getting promotional emails in their inbox, but the same can’t be said for the 20% of folks who follow brands on social media.
Deals and discounts are important for driving sales, so where do consumers go to look for them? When people want to find a special deal, email is the go-to channel.
44% of users check their email for a deal from a company they know, whereas only 4% will go to Facebook.
So consumers are totally fine with receiving your promotional emails, and they actually want to find deals in their inbox. But do these promotional emails really work to drive sales?
YES.
60% of consumers state that they have made a purchase as the result of a marketing message they received by email.
On the flip side, only 12.5% of them even consider a buy button as a purchase driver on social media.
Here’s the interesting part:
It’s definitely not a fear of purchasing online that creates this hesitation since 93.5% of global internet users have purchased products online.
Plus, just under half of global internet users trust social media for product research. Making the jump from social research to social purchase, however, seems to be a tough nut to crack.
Researchers think that chatbots may be the way to bridge this gap by keeping product research, customer service, and purchasing together in a single place.
Bottom Line: Email marketing is the best way to make sales online.
Which Has Greater Reach: Email or Social Media?
This may come as a bit of a surprise, but social media doesn’t have a great engagement rate. Barely over half a percent, in fact (0.58%).
Not quite the social powerhouse you were expecting, huh?
On the other hand, email reaches about 85% of the people you send it to (this is called the inbox placement rate) and has an open rate of almost 23%.

Email Marketing ROI vs Social Media ROI
When asked what is the most important measurement to gauge the effectiveness of any given channel, most marketers agreed that the overall return on investment (ROI) is the most important.
So which yields the greatest ROI: email marketing, or social media?
Yeah, that’d be email.
Email marketing yields $44 back for every $1 you spend – a 4400% ROI.
Wondering what’s the ROI for social media? So are we. So is everyone.
Unfortunately, there just isn’t a great way to track it. While one brand may have a method that works for them, another brand probably tracks it a completely different way making comparisons between the two entirely meaningless.
What we can tell you is this:
For the best return on your investment, focus on email marketing but develop a social media marketing plan that makes sense for the audience you’re trying to reach.
Email marketing and social media marketing aren’t the same and they shouldn’t be treated as replacements for each other. The truth is, the best marketers are going to use the two together. Here are the ways each of them can be best put to use:
Social media is great for driving traffic to your website. You can do that organically by making your content go viral, or by paying for social media ads.
User-generated content is also HUGE on social and can be an excellent driver of traffic and leads.
Email marketing is awesome for generating leads, driving sales and increasing customer retention.
Simply put, you can and should use social media to drive visitors to your website, where you can use the power of OptinMonster to convert those visitors into subscribers. Then use an email marketing service like Constant Contact to build relationships with your subscribers and unlock that ROI.
Got thoughts to share about email vs. social media marketing? Share them with us in the comments!
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