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Email vs. Content Marketing: Choose What Fits You Best
You Might Be Focusing on the Wrong Metrics. Let’s Find Out.
Victoria Kurichenko
May 15, 2025
If you’ve landed on this post, you are likely wondering which strategy to focus on to grow your business: content marketing or email marketing.
Honestly, both can work well. But the real question is, what’s the best fit for your business?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here.
For example, I’ve been using SEO to drive organic traffic to my website for years. Today, about 70% of all my website visitors come from organic search results. The SEO strategy works well if you know how to implement it correctly.
On the flip side, some people focus on email marketing. They build relationships with the target audience through emails that land right in their audience’s inbox.
Grant Stimmer, the founder of The '92 newsletter, shared on LinkedIn that he has made over $47,000 in the last 7 months with beehiiv Boosts.
Pretty wild, right?
So, how do you choose the best marketing channel to focus on?
In this article, I’ll explain what content and email marketing are, how they work, and when each makes the most sense.
I’ll also talk about the potential ROI from both channels should you want to pick any to grow your audience.
Why Trust Me?
I’m an SEO specialist and content writer. I help B2B and SaaS brands get found through organic search results. I’ve also grown my own blog, Self Made Millennials, to over 15,000 visits with roughly 100 indexed pages.
Table of Contents
Understanding Content Marketing & Email Marketing
Before diving into the details, let’s ensure we align in understanding the basics of content marketing and email marketing. These two powerful strategies are key to growing your brand and connecting with your audience.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is all about creating and sharing helpful content to attract the target audience.
Instead of pushing products in people’s faces, it’s more about offering valuable content that helps your brand build trust over time.
Every time you open a social media app or browse through search results, you are exposed to examples of content marketing, including:
Blog posts
Videos
Podcasts
Social media posts
Paid ads
Reels
Lead magnets
And more!
In fact, the article you are currently reading is also a great example of SEO content marketing intended to help beehiiv reach their target audience in organic search results.
beehiiv’s audience isn’t only hanging out in search results. beehiiv’s content marketing team repurposes its content and shares it all over the web to attract more eyeballs.
Here’s an example from Twitter:
The same content is repurposed and shared on LinkedIn:
Such content builds trust over time because it’s helpful and not salesy. And the trust often leads to sales. When done right, content marketing leads to better ROI by turning readers or viewers into customers.
What Is Email Marketing?
With email marketing, you might send newsletters, product updates, blog posts, or special offers right to someone’s inbox. It’s part of content marketing because it focuses on sharing valuable content that builds trust and relationships over time.
What makes email marketing special is that it’s personalized. You can speak directly to people using their names and send them tailored content based on what they like. You can also follow up when they take certain actions. That’s not something you can do on social media or SEO.
You can send different types of emails, such as
Daily, weekly, or monthly newsletter
Transactional emails when someone purchases a product or a service
Reactivation emails when you want to reactivate subscribers
And more!
Tyler Denk, beehiiv’s CEO and co-founder, sends regular weekly emails every Tuesday sharing how they build beehiiv in public. He talks about everything from funding updates and lessons he’s learning as a CEO, to sneak peeks of new product features and more.
Tyler’s email list has over 90,000 subscribers (yep, I’m one of them!), eager to learn exclusive insights from someone who’s helping shape the tech world.
Tyler’s regular newsletters help promote beehiiv and attract potential beehiiv users. Over time, this kind of content builds loyalty, keeps people engaged, and encourages them to take action.
Key Differences Between Content Marketing and Email Marketing
Although both channels aim to support your business goals, they differ in strategies and tactics.
Let’s dive into what sets them apart.
Public Content vs. Personalized Messages
Content marketing shares your story with the world, while email marketing tells it straight into someone's inbox.
This is the key difference I see between these two marketing channels. It doesn’t mean one is better than the other. It simply means your go-to strategies depend on your business goals.
Publishing on social media will likely help you raise your brand awareness and build trust. On the other hand, sending emails might instantly help you sell your products or services.
I’ll discuss metrics and KPIs for tracking performance later in the article. So, keep reading.
Audience Engagement vs. Direct Conversion
In short, one builds awareness, and the other drives results. Let me explain this.
With content marketing, you are “casting a wide net” to attract and warm up a broad audience. That’s why we have tons of blog posts, YouTube videos, and social media content aiming to achieve one goal: capturing your attention.
If a brand’s message resonates with you, you might move one step further – subscribe to their updates. And that’s when the email nurturing phase starts to convert you from a warm user into a paid customer.
I admit I’ve bought many products and services via email, even though I didn’t plan to. The beehiiv’s 2024 Black Friday offer, which you can see below, is one of them. If you missed it, they’ll likely introduce a new one this year, so stay tuned!
Long-Term Brand Building vs. Immediate Engagement
I’ve been growing my personal brand for several years by sharing content on my website, Reddit, LinkedIn, Medium, and via my newsletter.
Let me tell you that content marketing is a never-ending endeavor. Once you hop on this ride, there’s always something you can do to grow and strengthen your brand’s image. It yields returns in the long term, but it’s absolutely necessary for sustainable growth.
Email marketing, on the other hand, is more like a quick nudge. It’s designed to spark immediate action, such as clicking a link, signing up, or making a purchase.
Both could be helpful depending on the current state of your business and your goals.
Key Benefits of Content Marketing
There are good reasons to invest in content marketing if your goal is to grow a strong brand.
Let’s take a look at some of the key benefits it brings to the table.
Thought Leadership
Content marketing helps spread the word about your brand and attract more people to your offer. When you share content like tips, short videos, or behind-the-scenes posts, people are more likely to engage with it. They might like it, comment on it, or share it with their followers, which helps your content reach even more people.
This kind of sharing builds awareness and trust. Consistently talking about the same topic and sharing your thoughts can help you become a thought leader in a particular subject.
Even if people don’t reach out for your help immediately, your content reminds them of your brand. Over time, as people see more of your posts and learn what you’re about, they’re more likely to click through to your site to learn more or make a purchase.
Besides building thought leadership, there’s one more key benefit from spreading your content.
Traffic Boost
Whether you share your content on social media, email it to your subscribers, or post it in online communities, it will help generate interest in your brand. And the interest almost always turns into a traffic boost.
For example, I’ve recently started experimenting with Reddit. It turned out to be an excellent marketing channel for generating interest and driving traffic.
I published a post from my relatively fresh account, which has generated over 30,000 views in a few days! Since I’ve inserted several links, this post has also helped me redirect some traffic to boost my website performance. It’s a big win!
In my article on AI trends, I also mentioned that in 2025 and beyond, SEO will be closely tied to branding.
Google and other search engines can no longer pick the 10 best results for a search result page when thousands of similar pieces are published daily.
So, how does Google decide who gets to be seen? It comes down to authority, and that’s where your brand comes in.
When you grow a brand with content marketing, you indirectly help boost your site’s performance in organic search results.
Key Benefits of Email Marketing
I’ve highlighted some strong reasons for doing content marketing above. While email marketing also falls under content marketing, it has several unique and standout benefits.
High ROI
According to Statista, in 2023, the global email marketing market was valued at 8.3 billion U.S. dollars. This figure is projected to increase to 18.9 billion by 2028. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for that period is expected to be 18.8 percent.
Just think about it, 18.8% annual growth! That’s huge!
In comparison, email marketing drives much higher ROI than social media, primarily thanks to personalization and segmentation, which I’ll discuss below.
Unlike social media and SEO, you don’t depend on algorithm changes and updates when it comes to your email marketing. Your email list is truly yours, letting you double down on working strategies over time.
Segmentation
Segmentation means putting your email subscribers into different groups. You can group them based on what they like, what they do, or who they are, just to name a few.
For example, beehiiv lets you make different kinds of segments, some that stay the same (static), some that update on their own (dynamic), and some you adjust yourself (manual).
You can group people by things like:
Who opened or clicked a certain email
Super active subscribers (based on open or click rates)
People who unsubscribed
Those who haven’t confirmed their email yet (they show up as “Pending”)
Paying subscribers
And a bunch of other options too
You can learn more about segmenting your audience using beehiiv in this video:
Personalization
When you segment your audience based on specific criteria, it also allows you to personalize your emails.
It’s about sending the right message to the right person in a way that actually feels relevant.
For example, someone who has just signed up for your list might get a welcome series, while a loyal customer could get a special discount.
People are more likely to open and click emails that speak directly to them. Instead of sending the same message to everyone, you can create conversations with each group. It builds trust, makes people feel seen, and ultimately leads to better results, such as more opens, clicks, and sales.
When writing this article, I’ve also checked what people are saying about using email personalization on Reddit.
Here’s one of the responses that stood out for me:
How Content & Email Marketing Work Together
Content and email marketing perfectly complement each other when you use them together. Let me show you what you can accomplish when working on both strategies simultaneously.
Building & Nurturing Your Email List
It took me a few years to understand the power of content and email marketing in growing an online business.
Let me explain what I mean.
Content marketing can help you build your email list by attracting people via blog posts, social media posts, or lead magnets. For example, someone might read your article, like it, and sign up to receive more similar content directly in their inbox. That’s where email marketing steps in.
Once people are on your list, sending regular newsletters can help you stay in touch, build trust, and keep them engaged. You can send helpful tips, updates, or personal stories, whatever keeps the conversation going. Over time, your audience will start seeing you as someone they know and trust, not just another random brand.
There’s one great example I'd like to share with you.
Have you heard of the Entrepreneur’s Handbook? It’s one of the top publications on Medium, launched by Dave Schools.
Dave has grown the publication to over 336k followers on Medium, including me. Since Medium’s email features are limited, Dave turned to beehiiv to nurture the audience.
Here’s what Dave shared in the creator spotlight:
I use my website, Medium blog, and social media to grow my audience. But when it comes to really connecting with them, nothing beats beehiiv.
I highly suggest watching this webinar by beehiiv’s Head of Growth, EJ White. You'll learn about tips and tricks for nurturing your audience. If you prefer reading, you can check out the webinar summary here.
Promoting Content Through Email
Your content marketing efforts don’t stop when you hit “Publish” on a blog post or share something on social media. Instead, it’s just the beginning.
If you want people to actually see your content, you have to promote it. Email marketing is one of the best ways to do it!
Unlike social media, where your post might get buried because of algorithms, emails land right in your audience’s inbox. It’s direct and personal. You don’t have to rely on a platform to “maybe” show your post to the target audience.
Instead of hoping your content gets noticed, you can take control and send it straight to people who want to see it.
For example, I regularly share my Medium articles and blog posts with my newsletter audience. My readers care about growing and monetizing websites, so they’re usually excited to check them out. Honestly, some posts would’ve been missed if I hadn’t sent them directly.
Here’s a quick peek at one of my newsletters where I promoted my Medium post. Readers enjoy the fresh insights, and I get more visibility for my work. Win-win.
Measuring Success With Metrics & KPIs
If you don’t measure how your content performs, you’re basically flying blind. Let’s talk about the metrics and KPIs that can help you better understand how your content performs.
Content Marketing Metrics
As a content creator and SEO specialist, I recommend tracking the following metrics to determine if your content aligns with your business goals.
Depending on your business, you can track more or fewer metrics. The key is to pick the ones that align with your business and help you achieve your goals.
Incoming Traffic: Ensure you track the amount of traffic coming from various content marketing channels. The more traffic you get, the more opportunities you have to nurture your audience.
Time on page: This metric shows if visitors engage with your content or bounce right away. The goal is to keep users on your website longer.
Bounce rate:This is an engagement metric that shows the percentage of users who leave your site after visiting a single page. According to Semrush, a good bounce rate is around 40% or lower.
Organic search traffic: If you work on search engine optimization, I recommend tracking whether your content ranks in search results and drives organic traffic.
Visitor to lead: Measure what percentage of your website visitors turn into leads.
Visitor to client: Measure what percentage of leads turn into paying clients. It’s the real measure of ROI.
Email Marketing Metrics
beehiiv has an excellent article on all essential newsletter metrics you need to track. Let me summarize the main metrics that will help you understand your newsletter performance:
Open rate: It indicates the percentage of people who open your email. A strong subject line usually helps here.
Click-through rate (CTR): Tells you how many users click a link in your email. It's a good sign they’re interested.
Conversion rate: It measures the percentage of people who take the target action, such as buying something or signing up.
Bounce rate: Shows how many emails aren’t delivered. If you have a high bounce rate, it’s time to clean your email list.
Unsubscribe rate: If many people opt out, your content might need improvement.
Spam rate: Tracks how many people mark your email as spam.
Email list growth rate: This metric shows how fast your email list is growing. More subscribers = more chances to convert.
ROI: It helps you measure the profitability of your email campaigns.
It’s also worth mentioning that, unlike many newsletter platforms, beehiiv has a 3D Analytics toolkit. It helps you understand how your newsletters perform with three reports:
Subscribers report – shows how your audience is growing
Post report – tells you how each newsletter performs
Clicks report – tracks how many people are clicking your links
This data makes it easy to figure out what’s working and focus on the channels that bring you the most engaged and valuable subscribers.
Ready To Build and Grow Your Audience?
Try beehiiv’s 30-day free trial to accelerate your content and email marketing efforts. You’ll get access to multiple newsletter growth and monetization features that make content creation faster and easier.
You’ll also unlock powerful toolkits, including the beehiiv AI, Email Automation, and 3D Analytics, to help your email list grow faster.
Give beehiiv a shot!
FAQ
Which Is Better, Content Marketing or Digital Marketing?
It’s not about which is better because content marketing is a part of digital marketing.
Think of digital marketing as a big picture, including SEO, social media, email, and content marketing.
If you’re looking to build trust, grow an audience, and get long-term results, content marketing is a go-to strategy.
Which Is Better, Digital Marketing or Email Marketing?
I’d say it depends on your goals.
If you want to reach a new audience and build brand awareness, go with digital marketing. If you want to talk directly to people who have already shown interest, email marketing is the way to go.
Honestly, they work even better together.
Is Email Marketing Better Than Social Media Marketing?
Both strategies are proven to work and deliver results. The question is: “Which one will work for your business?”
Social media is great for visibility and brand building, but algorithms can limit who actually sees your posts. Emails land straight in someone’s inbox. Plus, you own your email list.
While both are useful, email marketing is generally more reliable for driving sales and building long-term relationships.
Which Is Better, Email Marketing or SEO?
It’s not really about which is better, but how these two strategies can work together to grow your business long-term.
SEO is great for bringing in people who are already searching for what you offer. It takes time, but once it works, it’s likely gonna work for a while.
Email marketing, on the other hand, is great for staying in touch with people who already know you. You can build trust, share updates, and sell directly.
If you can do both, I suggest using SEO to attract your target audience and email marketing to keep them engaged.
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