Social Media and Email Marketing – How They Coexist

By now, everyone who doesn’t live in a cave has heard about social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, we know the names. As for the numbers, there are 900 million users of Facebook alone. With a potential market that large, having a business page on Facebook is a no brainer, and many businesses have Facebook pages. But are they making money off their page? Are they attracting friends and visitors? How do you market on a social media platform?

Marketing on pages like Facebook is different than on Google or other media outlets such as the Yellow Pages. The difference can be shown as the difference between a hunter and a farmer. Businesses that advertise on Google or other search media are appealing to people who are looking for a specific product, type of product, or a service. These businesses are hunters. They are pursuing a specific person to persuade  them to buy a specific product or service.

Businesses that advertise on social media sites are farmers. Facebook and other social media require you to plant seeds, cultivate an audience, and grow a following through good content, interacting with your followers, and eventually reaping a harvest.

Although there are many social media sites out there, we will concentrate on Facebook for today. Although LinkedIn has its admirers, it is predominantly a B2B site, whereas Facebook does well for B2C businesses. Facebook has made it clear they want you to do business through their site, and they have made it easy for you to set up your page. Once your page is set up, just how do you go about attracting fans and followers?

Here are some steps you can take:

1. It seems obvious, but inviting your friends is the first step. How many people have personal pages with 200+ friends and a business page with 20? No one is saying every friend needs to be a fan, but many friends can be fans, and should be. Don’t be shy about asking.
2. Post outstanding content. Make your posts engaging, entertaining, and informative. Make deals and sales available only to your fans a regular occurrence. The deals could be a free gift, discounts on products and services, or an invitation to a special event.
3. When a fan makes a comment on your page, respond to it. Thank them for kind words written, or answer a question if one is asked. You should email your frequent commenters, and answer their emails to you.
4. Engage in their sites. It takes only a minute to look up a fan on Twitter. Hit the follow button and start to follow them. Connect with them on LinkedIn. This will make them feel special, and may give you important information about them.
5.  Post material from other sources, and credit them appropriately. This will build credibility with your fans and make a fan out of your credited source.
6. Take a poll. Find out what’s on everybody’s mind.

Many business owners are under the false pretense that social marketing has made email marketing obsolete. This is not the case. In fact, integrated together they make a potent marketing tool. For example, social media gives companies another online option to get messages to their audiences. This reduces the need to send so many emails, reducing email exhaustion among recipients. It allows the business owner to get more personalized and targeted with their email campaigns. Further, people who are engaged in social media sites check their email more often than those who do not. According to a survey from Merkle, 42% of social media users said they check their email more than four times a day, compared with just 24% of non social media users. Adding social media share buttons increases the reach of the average email by 24.3% according to a survey from Silverpop, an email service provider.

Smart business people have realized that social media and email are complimentary to each other. An effective social and email marketing effort requires coordination. Here are some things you need to do:

1. Find out who is on each list. Not all your social marketing followers are going to be on your email opt-in list and vice versa. Poll both lists to see who is missing from each. Social fans should be polled to find out who is not on the opt-in email list, and a poll should be sent to email recipients to determine who is and is not a Facebook fan. You’ll probably find there isn’t as much overlap as you think.
2. Once you know who’s where, you can start to convert you’re Facebook fans to email subscribers. Put an opt-in box on your Facebook page. Many email service providers provide Facebook opt-in widgets for their customers. Call or email your provider to find out if they are one. Another way to get them to sign up is to offer a small incentive or gift. A % off coupon is a good way to go.
3. Most email providers also provide social sharing links on their email templates. Use them to entice your email readers to easily become a fan of your page. Social sharing buttons have resulted in a 30% increase in click through rates, according to GetResponse.

Developing the right content for social media and email opt-in lists is the next step. Email recipients want personalized, relevant content that will serve their purpose.  But they are also in the market for a bargain. In fact, in a study done by Exact Target, 62% of people who signed up for email did so to get a bargain. That compares to 17% who said they look for bargains on a Facebook page.

Facebook fans sign up to show support for the company, get information from the company feeds, learn about new products and services, and finally, just to have fun. If email is used to inform, Facebook should be used to entertain. Facebook can be a great forum to answer questions and respond to news. A well worded answer or response can lead to more Facebook followers.

Finally, you must track the results. Some of the things you should be monitoring are:

• Click through rates
• Increases in fans or followers
• Opt-in rates from forms on social media
• Social sharing rates
• Comments left on a Fan page or email response
• Traffic generated to your website from either source.

Using email and social media effectively requires some skill, and plenty of time and effort. Once systems are in place, much of that effort can be automated. Both marketing avenues can bring excellent results, but require patience and persistence. For more information on this or any other online marketing topic, go to Elvin Web Marketing or call us at (203)882-0171