Email marketing and social networks is an extremely important topic. After all, it’s not possible anymore to accomplish marketing without social networks, not to mention digital marketing. The platforms of online communication are spaces in which not only the public communicates with the people important them, but where brands can establish great relationships with the audience, and establish a channel of constant feedback.
So, nothing better than to combine these features with email marketing. As several surveys continue to show, email is still alive and well, and still is a channel not only heavily used, but showing great results and return on investment.
But like any good marketer knows, the important thing is to have different channels available, in order to create a strategy for robust and flexible marketing, contacting consumers where they are.
Let’s take a look at some very interesting general strategies to combine email marketing and social networking by joining the efficacy of one and the dynamism the other.
5 Winning Strategies
– Featured buttons
The most basic strategy is to show to your contacts that they can interact with you on other channels also: so, include social networking icons in your emails. It may seem obvious, but it is important to highlight them. Put a beautiful and well highlighted icon.
See how the newsletter of the Global Voices does it.
Sending a dedicated email campaign
Sometimes just including links or buttons is not enough. Remember that, in marketing, is always good to convey clear messages, making it clear what you expect from your contact. Thus, consider sending a dedicated campaign to talk about your social efforts, or a specific social network, for example.
Be careful, don’t do this at all times! This is a more timely action, to tell your contact that you are active on a given platform and what kind of content theycan find there. This is a great effort to create brand awareness, and demonstrate that you have authority on a given topic.
The important thing is not only showing that you can be followed on Twitter as well, but that it’s good to interact with you there.
Also, make sure to direct those messages. Ie, ensure that you’re communicating with your contacts on a social network that is most relevant to them. For example, if you have a more corporate-minded list, of business representatives, talk to them about your LinkedIn. For younger contacts, direct them to your Instagram. So, you have a greater chance of increasing conversation.
Conection and incentives
As we mentioned, incentives need to be clear. It can be a good strategy to offer specific advantages in an email campaign, aimed at the connection between social profiles.
For example, a newsletter can be a great channel for you to ask your contacts to invite friends to Like your Facebook page. From there, who achieve a minimum set of likes is entitled to a small gift, or a discount. These promotions do not need to involve financial incentive. They just need to put your subscriber in evidence, reward somehow the ones that shared or interacted the most with your brand.
The motto is: give them a reason.
Subscribing in newsletters from social profiles
This is also a great bridge between one effort and another. The name is cross-promotion. In it, you get any channel you have enough traction, such as a busy Twitter account, and directs to another channel, which in case is email marketing. You may create a specific post with a beautiful picture and a link directing to the page where you have a form to register. In the case of Facebook, you can also create a dedicated tab on your page with a form from Mailee. You can see the full process here.
The form is fully integrated, so when a contact signs up, it’s automatically included in the list of your choice. The forms are also double opt-in, to ensure that you only send to customers who consent, as the best practices of email marketing preach.
Keep in mind that when sending for contacts that came from social networks, think of campaigns connected to their preferences. After all, they come from a specific platform, so they should approve the type of content that you post there.
Applying this data
By incorporating emails from your contacts from social networks, you have valuable information in the hands. From forms they are already automatically entered into your account in Mailee, separated into lists according from their origin (this is set when you generate the form). From there, you can cross them with the base of your system to draw good conclusions. In general, are these contacts already customers? Contacts that come from social networks purchase your products or services more often than others? How do these numbers compare in different networks?
As you already have data in hand, look closely at them and play with it. This will help you understand your customers and improve your performance in future marketing campaigns.
As the most used social network globally, and one of the greatest marketing tools today, Facebook deserves some tips. Let’s take a look at how the strategies of Facebook are connected to email marketing.
Strategic integration
É interessante notar como as métricas para email marketing encontram equivalentes nas métricas do Facebook. São nomes diferentes para ações próximas.
- Subscribes – Likes on page
- Unsubscribes – Dislikes on page
- Email Opens – How many people viewed a post
- Clicks – Clicks on posts, and comments
- Forwards – Shares
Interesting, huh?
A key to the integration of strategies is to welcome contacts when they are in transit from on one channel and another. A good tactic for this is to have a specific landing tab on your Facebook page, aimed to get the contacts you click on the page through its newsletter. Here you can include a special, or even some kind of promotion message.
The important thing is to demonstrate this link. Let’s see some more cases of how to integrate the efforts of content between these two.
- Use the results of subject line tests (so important!) to optimize the headlines of posts on Facebook. And vice-versa. After all, if you have this knowledge about what kind of content works best with your audience, why not take these insights ahead?
- Likewise, test images that are more effective in the newsletter, and incorporate them in status updates on the page, or even in Facebook ads. Or vice versa.
- In a general way, incorporate the most popular content of your email on your status updates. And vice-versa. The one published first must help the other.
- Remember Sponsored Stories? They are posts from a page, paid to be boosted, appearing in the timeline of friends who likes your page, with a picture of him/her, stating they like your promoted post. Pull this idea and incorporate stories of success and satisfaction of your clients in your newsletters. Nothing impresses more than stories of people nearby.
- Post previews of messages that are to be sent in status updates.
It’s because of all those possibilities and different integrations that the individuals responsible by your Facebook program are the same responsible for your Email Marketing.
#Bonus: Instagram
And we still have a bonus, Instagram. Check out some ways to increase the use of #Instagram along with your email campaigns. The important thing is to have a presence where your contacts are, and this is a great space for this.
There are two moves that can be made by combining Email Marketing and Instagram.
- One is to send people from your campaign to your Instagram, such as Tablet Magazine did. Using clear incentives, your job should be to communicate what people will find there and why this is important.
- The other is talking about your email campaign on Instagram, showing an incentive for people to subscribe to your newsletter. In the case of Instagram, a good incentive may be to employ in your campaigns the coolest or most voted photos of the month, highlighting your own audience.
Let’s take a look in a few tactics to incorporate this in your email marketing strategy.
Add a Follow us button on Instagram
I know, we’ve talked about it up there, but it’s good to remember again. Let your audience know that you have a strong presence on Instagram. Again, not only you’re there, but what will they find and why you should pursue it. Unlike other networks, Instagram is a little younger, as well as the presence of brands on it. People are not yet used to your brand there. Even non-promotional campaigns can be positive and bring engagement to the brand.
It is important to direct link to your web Instagram profile, so you can detect who’s on mobile and who’s on desktop.
#Hashtags
Creating a hashtag to identify your own brand is very important. With it, you can allow your audience to send pictures and populate the network identifiable, relevant content to your brand.
This clothing brand highlights for your hashtag:
It may also be interesting to include hashtags on your subject line.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a great tool to expose a brand without being so invasive or promotional. In fact, the purpose of content marketing is to help or entertain the audience. So, let’s use Instagram to what it’s good: visual focus. A cool use of it is this emphasis on a dialogue of images, whether using professional photos, or posting material submitted by clients, the ones who enjoy and defend the brand. Using hashtags, you can expose some selected photos of your clients.
But remember, it will be better if your brand has a strong visual appeal, especially if it is related to a lifestyle.
So, why not sending an email marketing campaign with the most commented photos, or comments from users in certain products? If you already invest in Instagram, just bring along the email marketing efforts.
Contests
Contests on Facebook are already very common. The idea with Instagram is to apply the same principle, but with a visual twist. Apply a specific hashtag and encourage your audience to freak out over some visual theme related to you. This generates not only identification and engagement with the brand, but eventually disseminates it to all other contacts of a customer. Remember: the word of a friend is worth much more than a piece of advertising.
Lancôme sent a classy campaign involving a photo contest for wedding nails on Instagram:
Horchow chose a dedicated campaign.
- Email was always social. We are only exploring this potential.
With all these tips and strategies, your email marketing will become a lot more social. The result is a greater emphasis on a conversation with your audience, which can position a brand up top.
And now it’s your turn. How is the best way to integrate email marketing and social networks? Let us know what you have to say!
Image 1: Flickr Fncll.
Image 2: Flickr Thos003.
Image 3: Flickr 50997200@N07.
