Social Networks killing E-mail marketing? No, integration of the two is possible – and even recommendable. According to a study by GetResponse, e-mails containing social media sharing options such as Facebook or Twitter generated a 30% higher CTR than e-mails without them. What is even more promising is that the e-mails including at least three different sharing options had a 55% higher CTR. A very significant result, yet the study states that only 11.2% of e-mails currently offer three or more sharing options.
But why to limit to simple buttons in the end of the e-mails, when there are so many other possibilities to integrate e-mail marketing with social media? If just inserting few buttons can be so successful, imagine what other tricks can do!
Top seven tips to integrate e-mailing and social media:
1. Publish Facebook competition winners in the company newsletter
You acquire a double advantage, because besides of additional incentives of social media competitions, the Facebook community becomes part of your e-mail subscribers.
2. Promote exclusive offers in Facebook and Twitter – that are only available for e-mail subscribers.
Subscribers want exclusive advantages for their loyalty. Reserving certain privileges for only this group, the perceived value of your e-mail subscribers program increases and gives motivation for other users to join. Since social media is highly viral, the information will spread quickly.
3. Include links to the best web versions of your Newsletters to Facebook and Twitter.
This tactic increases amount of people reading and clicking your Newsletter, even more than just adding “like” buttons.
4. Include “like” buttons in newsletters and promotions, but offer users a reason to use them.
A study by Nielsen Norman Group showed that students used much more the “share” option, when they got benefits from it. For example, “share this in Facebook and find out what your friends think about this product”, “Share this in Twitter so your friends know where to find you”
5. Encourage your subscribers to ask through Facebook or Twitter.
Unfortunately, the subscribers cannot answer commercial messages, so show them the dedication of your customer service by encouraging them to ask questions through social networks.
6. Include questions that were published in Facebook and Twitter in your e-mail and answer them.
If a company is active in social networks, it develops constantly a big base of frequently asked questions and answers that should be included in communications.
7. Create a mail group that includes Twitter followers and send them additional information through email.
Twitter followers appreciate the personal perspective the 140 characters offer, so offer them information that awakens their curiosity.
There has been talk about death of E-mail marketing after the emerge of social media, yet both ways of communication can complement each other and create considerably better campaign results. Another additional benefit of these strategies is creating a strong up-to-date database by encouraging social media users to implement their personal information into the company database.
Capturing social media users (Twitter followers, Facebook fans, bloggers…) personal data is complicated, because of the contact permission issues, yet if they give it voluntarily this can create a considerable amount of leads. Not to mention the possibilities the data capture brings for customer loyalization programs.
