Best Practices for Integrating Email and Social Media

Most marketers understand that email is still one of the most effective and inexpensive tools you can use for your lead generation, but, while email is important it has some specific limitations, one of the largest being that it is restricted to the size of your email list.

Social media on the other hand, another inexpensive lead generation tool, doesn’t suffer from this restriction. When it comes to social media, sharing content and information is its fundamental purpose, and so when you share content within social media you’re not only reaching your contacts (followers, fans, subscribers etc.) but also their contacts. 

So how come too many marketers don’t put these powerful mediums together?

When properly combined, social media has the power to expand your reach beyond your current marketing database and ultimately give you the opportunity to reach a much wider lead pool.  

Here are some of our tips for integrating your email and social media.

1. Figure out which social media sites your customers use. Do you know what social media sites your customers use? It’s important that you know exactly where your target audience likes to share their content and that you have active corporate accounts on those sites with links to your email subscription form.
2. Use your e-mail list to build your social media following. Your email list is a great place to start finding relevant social media contacts. People who have already opted-in to receive information from you and who are already using social media, are usually excellent candidates to follow you on social media. 
3. Add links in your emails to each of your social media profiles. This relates to the point above. Remember, it’s not just about following your email list, but giving your subscribers the opportunity to follow you on social media. This also gives anyone they forward your emails to the opportunity to follow you as well. 
4. Find out what your target audience is talking about. One of the best ways you can use social media is to listen to what your target audience is saying. Understanding current issues, conversations and topics of interest within your target audience, can give you the information you need to send out more targeted, relevant email campaigns, which in turn, can help you ensure that your emails get opened more often. 

Posted by Amberlie Denny at June 9, 2010 8:30 AM

Comments