The Algorithm vs. The Inbox: Why Email Marketing Still Beats Social
Social media may get the spotlight, but email marketing gets results. In this blog, find out why smart marketers are betting big on their inbox, and why your email list might just be your most powerful digital asset.
We live in a world where social media gets all the spotlight. Brands obsess over follower counts, viral moments are constantly chased, and algorithms decide who sees what. But behind the scenes, quietly and consistently, email continues to outperform. If you’re building a business, nurturing a brand, or driving direct response, here’s the truth: your email list is not just another marketing channel, it’s your most valuable digital asset.
Why? Because while social platforms own your followers, you own your email list. And in a digital landscape that’s constantly shifting, that ownership is everything. Whether you're a solo founder, part of a growing marketing team, or just trying to make smarter decisions with your strategy, this blog post is for you. Let’s explore why email marketing isn’t just alive and well, it’s practically leading the way.
The algorithm vs. the inbox
On social media, you’re playing in their playing field. Every post you share must run through a process of algorithms that determine who (if anyone) sees it.
It’s not personal, even your most devoted followers might never see your updates because a platform’s algorithm decided to bury it. In fact, one digital marketer observed that if you have 2,000 Facebook followers, only about 2–5 people might see a given post you publish.
Think about that, out of thousands of people who signed up to follow you, only a handful get the message! And this isn’t just a one of case, recent data shows that in 2024, Instagram posts reach around 4.0% of businesses followers on average, and Facebook posts reached an even tinier 2.6%.
In other words, out of 1,000 followers, perhaps only 26 on Facebook will ever see your content. So whilst social media may have a huge user base, algorithms severely limit your organic visibility.
Email on the other hand has a different approach to things. When you send an email to your list, it lands in each subscriber’s inbox. Sure, not every subscriber will open it, but you’re at least getting a chance to be seen by everyone on your list and the difference in reach is surprising: the average email open rate is around 42.35%, meaning hundreds of people out of a thousand will read your message in comparison to your social media post.
Additionally, unlike a social post that might vanish into the void of a news feed, an email sits in the inbox waiting to be opened. There’s no mysterious algorithm deciding that your update isn’t worthy; your message reaches everyone who asked to hear from you. This direct line to your audience is gold for marketers.
And here’s another point to consider: social platforms often push you toward “pay to play.” Over the years, Facebook and others have dialed down organic reach so much that brands sometimes must pay for ads or boosted posts to reach even a fraction of their own followers. With email, if someone gave you their address, you can reach them at a very low cost, anytime.
Control and stability in a shifting landscape
Relying on a social media platform to communicate with your audience is a bit like renting a space in someone else’s shopping center. You might invite everyone, but ultimately you don’t own the building, the landlord does. So, if they change the rules, increase the rent (i.e. make you pay for reach), or shut the place down, you’re out of luck.
We’ve seen it happen as social platforms rise and fall. Remember MySpace, Vine, or Bebo? Trends tend to shift overnight, and a once-thriving platform can become dormant or simply vanish. If your audience lives solely on those platforms, you risk losing that connection whenever the platform’s fortunes change.
An email list, by contrast, is like owning your own house. You have direct contact info that isn’t tied to any one platform or subject to an algorithm. You own the relationship with your subscribers, it’s a list of people who have trusted you with their email addresses and given you permission to reach out.
Because of this, an email list is remarkably stable over time. People tend to keep their email addresses for years, and email itself isn’t going out of style any time soon. In fact, email has been around since the early days of the internet and has adapted and endured while countless social apps have come and gone.
It is predicted that by the end of 2025, over 4.6 billion people worldwide will be using email daily, making it the most widely adopted digital communication channel, a figure that surpasses any single social network. That longevity means your email list remains valuable even as social media platforms evolve or fade. You’re not scrambling to rebuild a follower count from zero.
A smart move is to use your social media to funnel followers into joining your email list, precisely to secure that ownership of the audience.
Show me the money (ROI)
Email marketing has a higher return on investment than any other form of marketing: £42 for every £1 you spend according to a study by the DMA. This is largely because it's easy to set up, track, and test different email campaigns. Most importantly, email remains the preferred method of communication for the majority of people.
It’s not just in theory either, we see it in real-world outcomes. Email subscribers tend to be more engaged and closer to purchase. They’ve opted in to hear from you, which is much better than a random social media scroller who might just thumb past your ad in 0.1 seconds.
That opt-in translates to action, one study by McKinsey found that email marketing acquired 40 times more customers than Facebook and Twitter (X) combined. In one analysis of an e-commerce campaign, email generated 174% more total conversions than social media.
The difference was huge, thousands of orders from the email promotions, compared to a few hundred via social, this shows that even when social media helps assist or amplify a message, it’s typically the email that closes the deal.
Why does email perform so well here? Part of it is the nature of the channel: your message isn’t competing with memes, family holiday photos, and viral videos on an inbox’s “feed.”
The subscriber’s attention, even if just for a moment, is on your email. And because you can personalise emails (addressing the subscriber by name, tailoring content to their interests or past purchases), people are more likely to respond.
Building relationships, not just followers
Another reason your email list is marketing gold is it helps cultivate long-term, meaningful relationships with your audience. Social media can certainly engage people in the moment, a trending hashtag or viral video but it’s often fleeting. Feeds update by the second, and that funny meme you posted is old news within a week. By contrast, email is a channel where you can slowly nurture a relationship over time.
Subscribers on your list might stay for months or years, consistently opening your newsletters or updates. You can tell a story through a series of emails, deliver value in the form of tips or exclusive content, and really educate or entertain your audience in depth.
Email is also a personal space for the consumer, people tend to guard their inbox carefully. So if someone has subscribed to you, it indicates a higher level of interest. Your emails greet them in a place usually reserved for work communications, personal notes, receipts, and important updates.
Over the long run, the collective impact of email is huge. You’re not just getting one chance to reach someone (as with a single social post); you’re building a dialogue.
Maybe they don’t need your product or service today, but by staying in their inbox regularly (and helpfully), you’ll be the first name they think of when they are ready to buy or need advice in your niche. Email lets you deliver consistent value and stay top-of-mind without fighting the churn of social media trends.
In a shifting digital world, bet on email
None of this is to say you should abandon social media. Far from it, social media is fantastic for discovery, and community conversations amongst other things. But if you’re serious about sustained reach and marketing results, building an email list is one of the smartest moves you can make, an email list is a marketing asset you truly own.
If you’re ready to unlock the full potential of your email marketing, that’s where we come in.
At Jarrang, we help brands turn their email lists into growth engines.
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