In recent months I have noticed the proliferation of articles and various opinions on a war that has no winners or defeated: email marketing vs.. social networks. In reality, there is no confrontation because those who think are generally in favor of email, when both digital communication systems can coexist without problems. It happens that those who praise it practice email marketing with a good amount of subscribers, to the detriment of social networks, which only go to send some information or promote products or services.
It is argued that in email marketing the list of subscribers – that is, their emails – is their own and they have complete control over it, whereas everything one does in social networks is subject to the decisions of third parties: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google+ and even a blog. As if Mark Zuckerberg one day decides to turn Facebook off and leave us in the dark. Or if those who run WordPress it happens to close the company and with it all blogs? Undoubtedly, a rather apocalyptic thought.
However, email marketing is also dependent on third parties, since the mail accounts depend on private companies and hostings. Anyway. While many today maintain that the greatest asset that an internet business can have is its list of subscribers, social networks are channels of communication that complement the email or the newsletter and must be integrated into the digital communication plan employed. E-mail marketing has the ultimate purpose of selling, prior to the loyalty of potential customers, while social networks are channels of conversation with followers and customers that is used to promote products, broadcast launches, gain brand name, answer doubts and questions, criticism, …
Let’s not forget something fundamental: always depending on the objective you want to communicate, the channels can be multiple, and as said, in many cases complement. It has nothing to do with an entrepreneur or independent professional offering a service, with a multinational product sales company. However, both can perform email marketing and social media campaigns. It is enough to know how to use these tools to generate empathy and interest.