Getting Social with Email Marketing
Leverage social media and email marketing to build stronger customer relationships
You use email marketing to reach your customers. You might be using social media to connect with them too. But are you enjoying the best of both worlds and getting the most out of your online marketing efforts by leveraging the two in one unified communications strategy? By doing so, you can drive those on your email list to "like" your Facebook page or follow your tweets on Twitter. At the same time, your presence on these networks can help drive subscribers to your coveted email list.
In this article, we'll give you some tips for bringing together your social media and email marketing efforts.
Announcing Your Presence
One of the first things you want to do after you set up your social media accounts is let people know you're there, and that your readers should join you there too. Connect your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts, and insert the appropriate logos into your email blasts, so all your readers have to do is click and they'll find you. I also put similar links right in the signature of my regular email, which makes it easy for friends and clients to find and connect with me wherever they choose.
It's tempting to just say a simple "I'm on Twitter. Follow me," but sometimes your customers and members will need a little more incentive or a reason to connect with you in one more place. "Get free downloads and updated tour information by following me on Twitter" is one way to get more followers. "Learn more about the impact your donations have on the community by becoming our fan on Facebook" is another.
Email to Social Media
By adding one or more social networks to your marketing mix, you may be saying to yourself, "An article for my newsletter, a Tweet, and a Facebook post: That's three things I have to write in a week."
The good news is that this is not the case at all. You can -- and should -- repurpose content from your newsletter (and blog, if you have one) on Twitter and Facebook. If you archive your emails or post your newsletter content to your website, you can use your subject line or headline as the text for your tweet, with a link to the piece. Do something similar on Facebook, though that site will do more with the information than post a link. When you paste a URL into Facebook's "What's on your mind?" box, the headline, description, and related image (if available) will appear, making your content even more attractive to potential readers.
If your newsletter typically contains multiple articles, break each issue up into chunks and share one piece every day (or every week) on social media. Now you have multiple days' worth of content to feed your social media channels without involving much extra work. And remember to add the Share button to your outgoing newsletters; this will allow your recipients to easily share your newsletter content with their own social media circle.
Social Media to Email
Social media can also be used to generate content for your newsletter efforts and drive new subscribers to your list.
From a content perspective, if a client, prospect, or member asks you a question on a social media site (or you see a question whose answer would benefit your audience) use the question and your answer as the basis for a newsletter article. You can also watch for industry-related trends on your social media sites and comment on them in your newsletter.
If the idea well is at an extreme -- either running dry or overflowing -- you can ask your social media fans and followers for help. When ideas are running short, ask them what they want to hear about. If you have too many ideas, ask which of the items you're considering resonates the most and go with the winner.
So how do you get your social media audience to subscribe to your email newsletter if they're not already?
Give them a tease!!! Let's say you own a tennis equipment store and happen to land a quick interview with tennis star Rafael Nadal that you plan to publish in your next newsletter. Post a note on your social media sites: "I scored an interview with Rafael Nadel. Subscribe to my newsletter to read what he has to say." Don't forget to include a link to your Join My Mailing List page. (Note: Facebook users can add a Join My Mailing List application5 directly to their page.)
If you're just getting started
Social media can also be used as a great customer service tool, to monitor when people are happy or unhappy with your products or services. And it has other uses too. Yes, posting your email newsletter content to social media sites is just the beginning.
by Ron Cates4, Constant Contact Development Director
You use email marketing to reach your customers. You might be using social media to connect with them too. But are you enjoying the best of both worlds and getting the most out of your online marketing efforts by leveraging the two in one unified communications strategy? By doing so, you can drive those on your email list to "like" your Facebook page or follow your tweets on Twitter. At the same time, your presence on these networks can help drive subscribers to your coveted email list.
In this article, we'll give you some tips for bringing together your social media and email marketing efforts.
Announcing Your Presence
One of the first things you want to do after you set up your social media accounts is let people know you're there, and that your readers should join you there too. Connect your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts, and insert the appropriate logos into your email blasts, so all your readers have to do is click and they'll find you. I also put similar links right in the signature of my regular email, which makes it easy for friends and clients to find and connect with me wherever they choose.
It's tempting to just say a simple "I'm on Twitter. Follow me," but sometimes your customers and members will need a little more incentive or a reason to connect with you in one more place. "Get free downloads and updated tour information by following me on Twitter" is one way to get more followers. "Learn more about the impact your donations have on the community by becoming our fan on Facebook" is another.
Email to Social Media
By adding one or more social networks to your marketing mix, you may be saying to yourself, "An article for my newsletter, a Tweet, and a Facebook post: That's three things I have to write in a week."
The good news is that this is not the case at all. You can -- and should -- repurpose content from your newsletter (and blog, if you have one) on Twitter and Facebook. If you archive your emails or post your newsletter content to your website, you can use your subject line or headline as the text for your tweet, with a link to the piece. Do something similar on Facebook, though that site will do more with the information than post a link. When you paste a URL into Facebook's "What's on your mind?" box, the headline, description, and related image (if available) will appear, making your content even more attractive to potential readers.
If your newsletter typically contains multiple articles, break each issue up into chunks and share one piece every day (or every week) on social media. Now you have multiple days' worth of content to feed your social media channels without involving much extra work. And remember to add the Share button to your outgoing newsletters; this will allow your recipients to easily share your newsletter content with their own social media circle.
Social Media to Email
Social media can also be used to generate content for your newsletter efforts and drive new subscribers to your list.
From a content perspective, if a client, prospect, or member asks you a question on a social media site (or you see a question whose answer would benefit your audience) use the question and your answer as the basis for a newsletter article. You can also watch for industry-related trends on your social media sites and comment on them in your newsletter.
If the idea well is at an extreme -- either running dry or overflowing -- you can ask your social media fans and followers for help. When ideas are running short, ask them what they want to hear about. If you have too many ideas, ask which of the items you're considering resonates the most and go with the winner.
So how do you get your social media audience to subscribe to your email newsletter if they're not already?
Give them a tease!!! Let's say you own a tennis equipment store and happen to land a quick interview with tennis star Rafael Nadal that you plan to publish in your next newsletter. Post a note on your social media sites: "I scored an interview with Rafael Nadel. Subscribe to my newsletter to read what he has to say." Don't forget to include a link to your Join My Mailing List page. (Note: Facebook users can add a Join My Mailing List application5 directly to their page.)
If you're just getting started
Social media can also be used as a great customer service tool, to monitor when people are happy or unhappy with your products or services. And it has other uses too. Yes, posting your email newsletter content to social media sites is just the beginning.
by Ron Cates4, Constant Contact Development Director
Labels: email marketing, getting social with social media, increasing subscribers, online marketing tips, social media and email marketing, Social Media Strategy, subscriber aquisition
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