Email vs Social Media: Best Channel for Event Marketing

Want to market your event effectively? Here's the key takeaway: Email marketing delivers higher ROI and conversions, while social media excels at building awareness and engagement. Use both strategically for the best results.

Quick Overview:

• Email Marketing:
  • ROI: $36 per $1 spent
  • Click-through rate: 3.57%
  • Best for: Conversions, ticket sales, and detailed event updates
  • Lifespan: Long (stays in inbox until acted upon)
• Social Media:
  • ROI: $2.80 per $1 spent
  • Engagement: 0.07% on Facebook, 0.03% on Twitter
  • Best for: Building buzz, real-time updates, and visual storytelling
  • Lifespan: Short (content quickly buried in feeds)

Quick Comparison:

Bottom Line: Email is better for driving registrations, while social media creates buzz and builds community. Combine both for maximum impact.

Email vs Social Media: Key Features

What Email Marketing Does Best

Email marketing delivers strong results for event promotion by directly connecting with audiences who have opted in to receive updates. This permission-based approach ensures a high level of engagement, making email a reliable tool for driving conversions.

Key metrics highlight email marketing's effectiveness: a 79% delivery rate and a 21.73% open rate. Mihail Stoychev from iSenseLabs sums it up well:

"Email marketing is much more efficient as we have a well segmented opted-in list."

Here’s how email marketing stands out:

While email is great for conversions, social media shines in expanding reach and building engagement.

What Social Media Does Best

Social media platforms bring unique strengths to event marketing, particularly when it comes to increasing visibility. Although the average ROI is $2.80 per dollar spent, social media's real power lies in its ability to go viral and reach broad audiences.

Stuart Marler from Retriever Digital highlights this:

"Social results are better with paid ads, over organic, especially on Facebook."

Social media's strengths include:

On Facebook, organic reach averages 6%, but the platform excels at creating conversations and generating buzz for events.

Despreneur Magazine points out the performance gap between email and social media:

"Email is still the king. It's the 80% in 80/20. Quite literally. We're seeing anywhere from x25 to x10 when directly comparing email and social in terms of clicks generated."

In the event marketing funnel, email works as a lower-funnel tool focused on conversions, while social media serves as a mid-funnel channel, driving engagement and building awareness.

Email Marketing Versus Social Media

Choosing Between Email and Social Media

Picking the right marketing channel for your event depends on your audience, goals, and resources. But ROI isn’t the only thing to consider.

Side-by-Side Channel Comparison

These numbers can help you decide which channel fits your event and audience best. Email marketing often works well for corporate events, conferences, and workshops because these tend to require detailed information and attract a professional audience.

For younger audiences aged 18–34, social media is often more effective. About 33% prefer company communications through social platforms, compared to just 4% of those 65 and older. This group also engages more with visual content, with 24% actively searching for video content from companies.

Timing and promotional goals also play a role. Email marketing is ideal for sharing detailed event info, targeting professional audiences, driving ticket sales, and running longer campaigns. On the other hand, social media is perfect for grabbing attention quickly, sharing visuals, building community, and giving real-time updates.

In many cases, combining both channels is the best move. You can use email for its strong conversion rates and social media for its broad reach and engagement to get the best of both worlds.

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Making Each Channel Work Better

Email Campaign Tips

Email is a powerful tool for driving event sign-ups. On average, readers spend only 11 seconds on an email, but bold CTAs can increase clicks by 33%. Here’s how to make the most of your email campaigns:

• Optimize for Mobile
  Use responsive templates to ensure your emails look great on any device.
• Add Visuals
  Dynamic elements like GIFs and videos can grab attention. Emails with GIFs see a 26% higher click rate, while videos boost clicks by 22%. Plus, 65% of US readers prefer visually engaging emails.
• Time It Right
  Set up an automated sequence: send a save-the-date 2–3 months out, follow with an early-bird promotion 6–8 weeks before the event, and continue with regular updates featuring key details.
• Track Performance
  Keep an eye on open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. Use A/B testing to experiment with subject lines, send times, and CTAs to find what works best.

Pair these email strategies with a strong social media plan to amplify your event’s reach.

Social Media Campaign Tips

Social media is key for generating excitement and building a community around your event. Use these tactics to get the best results:

• Create Platform-Specific Content
  Each platform has its strengths. Tailor your posts accordingly:

  Platform	Content Type	Best Practices
  Instagram	Visual Stories	Share behind-the-scenes moments and speaker highlights.
  TikTok	Short Videos	Feature event prep and venue tours.
  LinkedIn	Professional Updates	Showcase agenda details and speaker credentials.
  Twitter	Real-time Updates	Provide live event coverage and host Q&A sessions.

• Boost Engagement
  Use polls, countdowns, live Q&A sessions, and event-specific hashtags to interact with your audience.
• Build Community
  Share attendee testimonials, highlight early registrants, and engage ticket holders in exclusive groups. Real-time updates can keep the momentum going strong.

Using Both Channels Together

Email is great for driving conversions, while social media is perfect for building engagement. When you combine the two, the results can be even better. For example, 75% of event organizers say social media plays a key role in their marketing strategy. Here's how to effectively bring these two channels together for promoting your event.

Steps for a Multi-Channel Campaign

Create a Unified Strategy

Keep your branding and messaging consistent across both email and social media. Use the same visuals, tone, and key messages. Make sure your event website matches this style to build trust. Once your branding is aligned, focus on creating momentum across both platforms.

Build Cross-Channel Momentum

Here’s a suggested timeline:

• Launch Phase (3 Months Before)
  Use social media to share teaser content and behind-the-scenes posts. Pair this with targeted emails offering early-bird pricing to your most engaged followers.
• Growth Phase (2 Months Before)
  Boost engagement on social platforms with interactive polls, speaker spotlights, and platform-specific content. At the same time, send automated emails to new registrants with updates on the agenda and exclusive content.
• Conversion Phase (1 Month Before)
  Use social proof to highlight early registrant excitement. Post countdowns on social media, send personalized email reminders, and offer limited-time discounts to drive registrations.

Track and Optimize Performance

Monitor your campaign’s success with these metrics:

• Awareness: Email open rates and social media impressions
• Engagement: Email click-through rates and social media shares/comments
• Conversions: Registration clicks from emails and ticket sales from social media
• ROI: Revenue per email and cost per social media acquisition

Post-Event Engagement

After the event, keep the conversation going:

• Share highlight videos and photos on social media.
• Send thank-you emails with exclusive post-event content.
• Use both channels to gather feedback from attendees.

Conclusion

Email marketing consistently outperforms when it comes to direct conversions and ROI, boasting click-through rates that are 50-100 times higher than those of social platforms. It’s a powerful tool for driving registrations, especially when paired with the reach and visibility of social media.

The key is to combine the strengths of both channels. Email, with its average open rate of 21.8%, excels at securing registrations, while social media creates buzz and builds anticipation. As one expert put it, "Social media is more of a mid-funnel channel and email is more of a low-funnel channel".

An integrated strategy works best - use social media to generate awareness and build interest, then rely on email’s conversion power to turn that interest into sign-ups. Amir Chitayat of OpenMoves highlights this dynamic perfectly:

"Email will almost always have a better ROI as it's less expensive and easy to deploy with very good conversions assuming design and content are following best practices"

It’s worth noting that 93% of event marketers use email in the lead-up to events. While email drives registrations, social media fosters community engagement and creates a viral effect. Together, these channels can maximize attendance and deliver impressive ROI.

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