Email Goes Social: Amp Up Your Word of Mouth Engine
By Lisa Kember | September 1, 2011
Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have been generating a lot of hype in the last few years as new ways of reaching and communicating with customers. Some organizations even dropped more established tactics, such as email marketing, in favour of these opportunities.
But the reality is that wide use of social media has actually increased the value of email marketing. According to a 2011 Merkle study, 42 percent of social media users said they check their email more than four times per day.
Why is social increasing email use? Very simply, social media networks offer alerts that send an email whenever someone comment on something you post, sends a private message, or follows you. This drives people to their inbox – the more email people get, the more they will check email. This is good news!
Email and social media work well together. So what can you do to integrate these two channels?
- Use your email list to grow your social fans, followers and connections.
Let people know that you are on Facebook and Twitter! You can do this by adding links to your social media accounts within your email newsletter and in your regular email signature. Put the same links on your website and your blog. The more places you link from, the more likely people will find you. - Use social media to grow your email contact list
Social networks are a great way to share content and engage with customers and prospects. But a fan or follower is not quite as valuable as an email subscriber. With the volume of activity on social sites, the likelihood of people seeing your message is significantly lower than email. So you need to do what you can to get people to opt-in to your email list. - Occasionally invite your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn followers to join your email list and provide them with a link to your newsletter signup page. But beware! If all your social posts say "Sign up for my list," then you won't have many followers. Let your content be your sales pitch.
- A good way to entice new signups is to tease an upcoming issue of your newsletter a few days before it's sent. If your newsletter goes out on Thursday, post a synopsis on Monday, and tell people if they want the information, they'll have to sign up by Wednesday to get this content.
- You can embed a Join My Mailing List signup form on your Facebook Fan page. Surprisingly, very few organizations do this, but it is a very simple way to grow your list.
- Add a share bar on your emails
Having multiple sharing options can dramatically increase your reach – it makes it easy for your readers to share the content of your newsletter with their fans, followers and connections. The Swinery butcher shop recently added the share bar on their email which went to over 3,700 subscribers. The email had a 22 percent open rate. But with the share bar, it was viewed an additional 485 times and liked by over 180 readers – representing a 60 percent increase in reach over their original email list. - Use content strategically for email and social
When someone signs up for your email list, they're looking for information or perhaps special offers that they won't find elsewhere. When they connect on social media, they're looking to engage and interact. That means your content should not be a straight repetition. For example, instead of simply posting your newsletter to Facebook with the headline "Check out the latest issue of our newsletter," consider pointing them to the newsletter and then asking a question they can answer on your Facebook Page. This promotes active dialogue between you and your connections. Create content that is interesting and helpful – not a sales pitch or coupon. - Share the top email content with your social followers
After you send your email campaign, check your analytic reports to see which stories generated the most interest (based on the number of clickthroughs). Then share the top stories from that edition with your social media followers. A social media post with a headline reading something like "top email articles" may find that something that piques their interest and it may get them to subscribe to your newsletter.
Clearly, email marketing and social media are not mutually exclusive. Each tool lets you engage with your audience yet they each serve a different purpose. Email allows you to deepen your connections and social media allows you to broaden your reach to new audiences. Email is a one-way communication channel, and social media is a two-way dialogue. In the end, it's all about increasing new business opportunities.
