We all know that in order to sell products and services, we need to attract the right people who will connect with what we have to offer.

As a result, most entrepreneurs or business owners tend to fall into what is called the social media trap by thinking that in order to get leads and grow their business, they need to focus on social media platforms and grow a following.

With social media platforms being so popular, this approach may feel natural to do, as there are so many people that we could get in front of. That sounds like it makes sense, right?

But here’s the thing, building an audience on social media is not really the most effective way to generate the leads you need.

A better way to do this is to build an email list, and here’s why…

According to OptinMonster, email marketing have a far better conversion rate and click-through/open/engagement rate than social media.

Their study shows that email is the preferred way for us to receive sales and marketing communications.

Here are some figures:

Conversion Rate: Email Marketing – 6.05% | Social Media – 1.9%

Click-through/open/engagement rate: Email Marketing – CT 3.17%, Open Rate 22.76% | Social Media – Engagement Rate 1.9%

This clearly shows that email is significantly more effective than social media, therefore what we should be doing is spending our time growing and email list and less time on the social media treadmill.

We are more used to getting email promotions in our inbox and are more likly to take action one these as we normally sign up to various business’ email list with the expectation to receive offers such as sales.

On the other hand, social media is typically not a place where most people are going to look for products and offers. They are there for social interactions or to connect with other people, and therefore are less likely to respond to business-related content.

it is better to build an email list on your website that you can have full control and access when you need to. Social media is not a place where you get to own or control the audience you build up there. And, you are basically operating on someone else’s platform and must play on their terms.

The bottomline is that stats show that email is more effective, and if you want to spend your time and enery getting better and faster results, email list building is the way to go.