Social and email are usually bought separately and end up repeating each other, which wastes both. They do different jobs: social reaches people who have not chosen to hear from you, and email reaches people who did. The value is in the handover between them, and that is the part most programmes never design.
Social finds them, email keeps them
Reach on a social platform is rented and can be reduced without notice. An email list is held by you and reaches people directly. The strategic move is to use social attention to earn permission, with an offer worth an address, and then to use email for the sequences that need repeated contact. Running both as broadcast channels forfeits the point.
Permission has to be genuine
Commercial email rules require a working opt out, accurate headers and a valid postal address, and several state privacy laws now govern how contact data gathered from advertising platforms may be used. Uploading a list of people who followed an account is not consent to email them, and it damages deliverability as well as being a legal problem.
Design the handover deliberately
Decide what social offers that earns the address, what the first email does with it, and what social does with people who are already subscribed, which is usually not the same message again. The commonest failure is that the welcome sequence ignores where the person came from, so the most engaged moment in the relationship is spent on a generic introduction.
Measuring the pair
Attribute the subscriber source and then measure the revenue those subscribers produce, rather than judging social on engagement and email on opens. That single change usually reveals which social activity is worth its cost, because it is measured against something that eventually turns into money.
Questions people ask about social media email marketing
Should one agency run both?
It helps with consistency, provided they can staff both properly. Ask specifically who handles deliverability and lifecycle automation, since those are the parts a social first team usually lacks.
Can I email people who filled in a lead form on a platform?
Only in line with what they were told and what they consented to. Lead form consent language is specific, and treating it as consent for a general newsletter is a common mistake.
What is a fair offer for an email address?
Something with immediate, specific value to the buyer, such as a tool, a guide that answers a real question, or a genuine first order benefit. Generic newsletter sign up boxes convert poorly because nothing is being offered.
How often should each channel send?
Social cadence is set by what the platform rewards and what you can sustain. Email cadence should be set by what subscribers tolerate, measured by unsubscribes and complaints rather than by what a calendar template suggests.