Email Marketing and Social Media seem to always be going head to head these days.  I am here to argue that you shouldn’t look at the two as competing forces, but as partners for a common goal.  Email marketing and social media both have seen great growth in the past few years, and they can be used in harmony together to help you create a lead generation machine.  Before we go through that I think it would be best to give you an overview of email and social media today.

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/why_marketers_should_keep_sending_you_emails

http://www.sociallystacked.com/2014/01/the-growth-of-social-media-in-2014-40-surprising-stats-infographic/

When I first viewed these numbers my first thought was “Email is 40 times more effective! Done!!!” However, let’s step back for a second and really think about the two.  Social media could be a great source for generating new leads, and your email marketing would be great for nurturing them.

With social media tools such as twitter lead generation cards you can start growing your leads.  Once you have the leads you can start delivering relevant content to them through both mediums.  This will give you two outlets to reach your potential customers, and increase your chances of turning potential customers into customers.

If you think that just capturing the leads and sending them emails is it then you may have missed this.  In order for the two marketing mediums to work in harmony you need to close the loop.  If you sit down and think about where your new leads were coming from in the first place then you would know that they have a social presence.  Why wouldn’t you use email as a way to encourage more social behavior? Other than the fact that including social share buttons in emails increase click through rates from 18-29% you are doing something way more powerful.  You are encouraging them to share the information that allowed them to be captured in the first place.  Chances are they will know others that will be interested.

So let’s go through it again. Here are the simple steps for turning social media and email marketing into your lead generation work horses:

  1. Use social ads such as twitter lead generation cards to capture leads interested in your content
  2. Email these leads great content that will help boost your brand image
  3. Close the loop with social share opportunities(Even encourage it in your emails)

If you start implementing these steps in your marketing process then you can avoid the Email Marketing vs Social Media debate, and start talking about how you can increase sales for your company by using them both.