Let’s say you have both an email marketing program and a social media marketing program. (We sure hope you do!) How do you make your email & social media both more successful by having them work together? Here a few tips & tricks we’ve collected to do just that:
How Social Media Can Help Your Email Program:
Social media is valuable for several reasons. It can be successful in both B2C and B2B companies. You can amass large numbers of followers by providing valuable content. Plus, it’s more common to reach potential buyers earlier in the sales process with social media than with email.
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Learning about your target audience
Social media platforms are full of little nuggets of information about your target audience that can help you figure out how they tick, what they’re most interested in, and the challenges they face day to day. All of these golden nuggets are helpful in creating relevant content that adds value, grabs attention and cuts through the email inbox clutter. Plus, they are invaluable for better segmentation of your email list and personalization of your email messages.
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Building your email list
Social media also gives you another avenue for building your email list. If you don’t already have an email sign-up form integrated into your Facebook page, you’ll want to add one stat. Next, send out tweets inviting people to sign up and reach out to followers and fans on any other platforms on which you’re active. You can also use social media to promote your email sign-ups via landing page sign-up forms, contests, sweepstakes and giveaways. Consider hosting a webinar that requires people to sign up with their email address. Or make signing up for your emails irresistible by previewing the type of content you’ll be sending out in your emails via your social media channels.
How Email Can Help your Social Media Program:
Last year, eMarketer cited email marketing as the most effective digital marketing channel for customer retention in the U.S. Email is considered an effective channel for lead generation too, producing on average 13% of all leads. And it’s personal. It’s the first thing a lot of people look at first thing in the morning. Plus, you own your email list. You won’t ever lose it—unlike when scads of people decide to move over to the hot, new social media platform.
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Building fans & followers
Just like you can use social media to build your email list, you can use your email list to build your base of fans and followers. Start by uploading your subscriber list to your social media platforms. Once you find your subscribers there, follow them and start building relationships by listening, responding, and creating and sharing valuable content. Be an authentic part of their community with regular contributions of value.
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Getting more social shares
Your emails are a great way to garner more social shares for your content. (This trick will also help your SEO efforts, so it’s a double win.) You might send out email notifications about new blog posts, new products, new sales, new news, etc. Give your subscribers an easy way to share this information. You can put social sharing buttons right in your emails to make this process easier.
Your potential customers subscribe to your email list because they expect valuable information from you. It’s not a huge leap to think that they’ll be interested in other content you provide via other channels. Be sure you have all the various ways that potential customers can connect with you in your emails.
Put It to the Test
Once you get started with a few of the above best practices, make sure you track meaningful metrics (opens, clicks, shares, comments, views, downloads, purchases, etc.) in order to see what works and what doesn’t and then adjust each channel to the behaviors of your target audience. You’ll also want to test multiple calls to action to see what works best in driving traffic from your emails to your social media pages and vice versa.
Do you have a story of a smart way you made your email and social media programs work well together? Or email or social media and some other marketing channel? Share your success stories in the comments section below.
If you’re hesitant to dive in, we understand. Reach out to Filament, and we’ll happily help you choose the marketing strategies that will best suit your business and your target audience. We’re here to help companies work smarter, not harder.
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