As marketing budgets continue to shift away from traditional marketing, the digital capture of customer and prospect information is crucial to connecting with them online. The use of digital channels can fast-track the growth of an organization’s email database.
Here are a few tactics your brand can use to leverage the power of social media for email database growth:
#1 Offer Exclusive (But Gated) Content
If you want your social media visitors to perform a certain action (in this case, provide their email address) offer something in return. Handing over premium content in exchange for an email address is a tried-and-true practice. This exclusive content could be anything from product-specific tips and tricks to thought leadership related to the services you provide, to a downloadable white paper or ebook. Just be sure it’s something of value or of interest to your followers and visitors. If it’s not enticing, they most likely won’t pony up their email address for it.
#2 Use a Facebook Sign-Up Button
A business page on Facebook is essential in today’s digital landscape. Assuming your business already has a Facebook page, you can add a call-to-action button to your business page, and set it to collect sign-ups. When you create the button, send it to a landing page on your website where the visitor can input their contact information, such as a “Contact Us” page.
#3 Create a Contest or Giveaway
Everyone loves contests and freebies. Create a low-cost contest or giveaway to promote on your social media channels. By advertising that you’re giving away a free product or service, you are able to direct your social media visitors to a landing page you’ve created to collect the entries. Through this page you can capture participants’ email addresses and make it clear that entering the contest also entitles them to receive your email campaigns. In addition, you should try to create a fun and catchy hashtag to go with the contest, so you can promote it across your social channels and encourage your followers to share it with their own networks.
#4 Use Facebook & LinkedIn Ads
Facebook and LinkedIn Ads are extremely effective at helping businesses narrow in on their target audience and entice them to take the action you want. Use a low-cost ad campaign to put your advertising in front of the people most likely to want and need your services. These ads platforms also allow you to control the call-to-action, so take this opportunity to ask for email sign-ups.
#5 Host a Webinar or Event & Share It
Raise your hand if you’ve ever attended a webinar. Those of you who have, you already know it is completely standard to enter in your email address to register for an event online. Since submitting your email to attend a webinar or event is standard, you won’t get much push-back when requesting this info. A fundamental of social media is being able to share your content to get in front of a much larger audience, so sharing a link to register for your webinar will help increase your number of email subscribers.
If you have any questions about using social media to grow your email database, please reach out to the experts at MoreVisibility for assistance.