Which is Better: Social Media or Email?
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Putting this question to rest once and for all…
So the question posted above is a false dichotomy. The obvious answer is: “Both email and social media are good”.
But I pose it that way because too many business owners don’t treat email and social media equally. Some dabble in both. Most assume they need a robust social media strategy. Few rely on email alone.
And I think they have it all backwards.
Usually, I start a blog post with a story, but this time I’m going to start with some facts.
A minuscule number of posts go viral. And even if your post does, that doesn’t mean profit for your business (just ask this Reddit user).
An email subscriber is considered multiple times more valuable than a follower (source).
Email is at least 4 times more effective in reaching your audience than Facebook (source)
“You’re 6 times more likely to get a click-through from an email than you are a tweet” (source)
4 out of 5 (80%) marketers would rather give up on social media rather than email (source)
70% of people prefer brands make offers via email (source)
“Pages that get their traffic from email campaigns have an average conversion rate of 13%” (5x better than normal) (source)
Statistically, email is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than social media.
Email is more important for short-term sales. Email is more important for long-term sales. And social media is much less effective at both.
The stats are clear: if you want to actually improve your sales, then you need email marketing.
And I want to illustrate why…
(NOW I’ll tell a story!)
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Story: My First Year Back Skiing
In 2023, my wife and I moved from San Diego to Spokane (eastern Washington state).
Many people playfully object to this decision, unable to comprehend why we would leave the sunny beaches of SoCal.
There were many reasons:
We didn’t live near the beach in SD
SD is much more humid than you think
We like seasons
SD housing is mind-boggingly unaffordable
But also… I wanted to start SKIING again.
I learned to ski growing up, but a perceived lingering knee injury in 2013 dissuaded me from hitting the slopes. Even when I was in grad school in Denver, I never felt like I was ready to give it a try.
(Also I was just a poor seminary student, but I digress…)
But by 2024, it had been 14 years since I was on a ski lift, and I was itching to get back into it.
And unlike San Diego, Spokane has 5 ski resorts within 1.5 hours, including the famed Schweitzer.
So while I knew I would miss the beach, I was excited to be near the slopes!
As we traveled up, I stopped by my parents’ house to pick up some skis and bindings from my dad.
Afterall, you can’t ski if you don’t have skis… right?
It took until my second winter here, but FINALLY I found a friend and we planned for my first ski day.
I hit up the local ski swap and got all the other gear I needed:
boots
helmet
poles
goggles
And finally, on January 2nd, 2025… I got to go skiing agin:
Look at that reborn, happy, amatuer skier!
I proceeded to ski about ten times throughout the winter. I even worked out a system where I could get up early, ski for three hours, and then get back early for a full day’s work!
But my “success” varied:
When you are on flat straightaways, you are supposed to lean forward with your shins, and I couldn’t do it. I always had to lean back a little bit.
I had to look up some trainings on Instagram and look up some “drills” to practice
Turning in powder was significantly harder than groomed runs, even with proper form.
Mt. Spokane gets some serious fog, and I learned that some days it is just… not… worth it.
By March, I was attempting to ski in “spring conditions,” and I found it impossible.
I concluded that I was a thoroughly amateur skier.
Which I am :)
But it was weeks later that I realized there was another problem…
After the ski season, one of the local shops (shoutout to Spokane Alpine Haus) was having a 30% off sale. Always a sucker for a discount, I went in, determined to upgrade either my skis or my boots.
I talked to the manager for a while, asking him what I needed the most. He paused to examine at my skis, commented on the Sick Day brand, and said:
“Yeah, they are old and don’t flex as well, but if you keep up with the wax, they should be fine for a few more years”.
And then he took one look at my boots, and without a moment’s hesitation exclaimed: "
“Holy crap… how old are these things?!”
The bottoms looked like this…
I shrugged…
Then I explained how I got them at the ski swap…
That they used to be rental boots at a resort…
How I got them for $25…
And that I wear extra thick socks to fit in them…
And he said: “Ah… yeah… lets measure your feet real quick” .
Turns out, I was wearing ski boots that were two sizes too small.
I desperately needed new boots.
And this ski employee is a good salesman, and saw a customer problem and need he could solve. And he began laying into me with his best sales pitch.
I heard it, respected it, but also kinda saw through it, and asked him an important follow-up question:
“Ok ok ok… I get it. But now that I know the right size, why shouldn’t I buy a shiny new pair of skis here, and buy the right-sized boots at the next ski swap?”
And his response was PERFECT:
“You DATE your skis… but you MARRY your boots”
He explained that nearly all of my struggles on the slopes were due to two things:
I really am an amateur
My boots were too big, so all my movements were thrown off.
With the right boots, I could actually improve my form and ski difficult conditions
30 minutes later, I called my wife, thanking her for the early birthday + Christmas gift combo…
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In Summary… Why is Email More Important?
If this story is an analogy, then “email marketing” are the ski boots and “social media marketing” are the skis.
Both boots and skis are both necessary for skiing. And in a similar way, both email and social media are excellent tools for distributing content. In a robust marketing strategy, both email and social media are necessary.
But ultimately, one is REPLACABLE, while the other is CRUCIAL.
Social media is one marketing channel you can use to GET attention. The more your target audience is on social media, the more important it becomes. But ultimately, there are several viable channels and strategies to cry out to the masses, grab the attention of your target audience, and funnel them to something that can turn them into customers.
Email, on the other hand, is the ONLY marketing channel that is effective at A) building interest of potential customers, B) converting those interested subscribers into customers, and C) retaining those customers for long-term sales. And for B and C it is the BEST option at your disposal.
In other words, without email, you are leaving money on the table.
Take a look at those stats at the top of the post again. Altogether, they paint a single picture: a subscriber is more valuable than a follower. Which means email is more valuable than social media.
To conclude, I want to ask the obvious question: “Why do so many people think social media is more important than email?”
In my opinion, the answer is simple:
Email ON ITS OWN does not bring you new customers.
And “not enough customers” is the primary problem for most businesses. So they turn to social media.
But what they fail to realize is that the right way to use social media is by getting people to become email subscribers. best when it turns
