Email and social media are two of the most powerful channels for digital marketing, but marketers often treat them as two separate platforms. In fact, these channels are even more powerful when used together in ways that complement their respective strengths and weaknesses.
This article will cover a few of the best
strategies for integrating your social media and email marketing approaches in
order to increase traffic, engagement, and sales. Keep in mind that the best
strategies depend on your unique brand and audience—the right tactics for you
may not be as effective for another business.
Encourage People to Sign up for Your Email
Lists via Social
Audience engagement is one of the most
important factors in digital marketing, and customers that interact with your
brand across multiple channels are much more likely to eventually make a
purchase. With that in mind, it’s important to run cross-channel promotions
that move readers from one channel to another.
You can add a link to your email list to your Twitter or Facebook profile, and these channels also allow you to advertise your newsletter in individual posts. Consider adding a lead magnet to offer readers an additional incentive to sign up for your email content.
Similarly, it’s easy to add links to your
social media lists in your email content. Most brands put these buttons at the
end of each message near the unsubscribe button, terms of service, and similar
elements. Over time, you’ll start engaging with your audience over a wider
range of channels.
Retarget Ads on Facebook
Customers often need to engage with a brand a
number of times before making a purchase, and Facebook is the most robust
channel for retargeting campaigns. The platform gives marketers access to a
variety of tools for full control over every element of each campaign.
You can start retargeting on Facebook by
uploading a custom audience based on a range of customer data. From Facebook
Ads Manager, click “Create Audience” then select a custom audience. Facebook
allows you to develop audience from web traffic, app activity, or an existing
customer list.
If you’re interested in setting up retargeting
campaigns based on web traffic, you’ll need to install the Facebook pixel on
your website to monitor all customer activity. Custom audiences also make it
easy to run drip campaigns that respond to certain kinds of behaviors.
User-generated Content
The majority of your digital marketing content
should be original, but user-generated content offers a number of advantages
compared to your own marketing. You can add user-generated content to your
social media and email strategies in a number of ways.
Contests, for example, are incredibly
effective in driving social shares and generating interest in your brand. You
can ask for creative submissions or simply get each entrant’s contact
information in order to add them to your email newsletter.
Straightforward marketing can help you build
your list, but contests give users another reason to give you their email
address. Furthermore, you can offer additional entries for certain other
behaviors like sharing the contest with their friends or liking you on more
platforms.
There are endless strategies for integrating
user-generated content into your digital marketing practices, so feel free to
experiment with different ideas and see what works best. Don’t think of this as
a one-time thing—user-generated content should consistently be involved in your
online presence.
Create Private Facebook Groups
On the other hand, some businesses offer
exclusive content to email subscribers, and you can quickly set up a private
Facebook group for users to discuss their interests and questions. In this
case, user-generated content often gives them much more personalized advice
than a larger business can offer.
A Facebook group limited to email subscribers
is one of the most effective lead magnets, but it isn’t always easy to manage
an engaging group. It’s critical to balance growth with the need for exclusive,
valuable content—it won’t be a good incentive if users can find the same
information online.
Similarly, LinkedIn allows you to create
exclusive groups and stay in contact via email. Your goal is to build groups
that are primarily supported by user-generated content rather than your own
input. The more you can get members to engage, post, and comment, the less work
you’ll need to do to keep the group running.
If you’re having trouble differentiating your
Facebook group, consider asking members what you could do to make the group
more valuable. Customer feedback is one of the most commonly overlooked
elements of a strong online presence, and nobody knows your audience like your
audience.
Build a Cohesive Online Presence
If you have different people or teams managing
your email campaigns and social media profiles, they may not be focused on
creating a unified brand image. This is one of the most important elements of
digital marketing—subscribers should immediately recognize your content across
channels.
You don’t have to manage both campaigns entirely on your own, but you should give some direction to your teams in order to get them on the same page. A consistent presence gives your audience a clear idea of what your brand is about. Remember to optimize your approach by researching the best time to send email campaigns.
Integrating your approaches also helps you recycle
content, using email content on social media and vice versa. If you run a
Facebook contest, for example, you can share some of the best entries with your
email subscribers when creating your next newsletter.
If you have a strong LinkedIn presence, your
content may also be shared through LinkedIn email updates. A large number of
users receive regular updates from their favorite groups, potentially including
your most popular posts. Of course, this requires a commitment to interesting
and truly unique content.
Email and social media are two of the best
ways to engage with your audience, and these tips will help you connect your
web presence across both channels. Engaging with readers on more channels can
improve performance in nearly every marketing metric.