What is the Number One Way to Connect Your Email and Social Media Marketing?

With so many ways to integrate email and social media we have almost unlimited options for leveraging connection between these two powerful conversation marketing channels. Still, for those at the beginning of the process it pays to know where to start. And the answer is simply:

USE EMAIL MARKETING TO INVITE CONNECTIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

This of course assumes you have a presence on at least one of the big three social networks – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – if not also on others like YouTube, Ning and Meetup.
Why start with something so simple and obvious? Here are three good reasons why and a few ideas how:

1) Leverage Your Broadest and Most Established Online Channel to Build Connections in New Channels. Today it’s still true that a greater percentage of your customers use email than social media. That makes email the broadest online channel you have to invite customers to engage with you in any other channel – online or offline – especially emerging channels like social. It’s probably also the oldest (and for some, still the only) online communication channel you have with your customers, so chances are, not only are more of your customers reachable via email than social, they’re also more comfortable with and open to hearing from you through email than social media.

Leverage email marketing messages to entice, invite and remind subscribers that you’re present and interested in engaging with them on social media. You can use email to do this in a variety of ways: a) through dedicated email invites and announcements to visit and “like” you on social media sites, b) through Facebook-based contests (where a visit and “like” of the page is required for entry), and c) by embedding in email messages social media connection icons that link to your corresponding pages on those networks (now common practice).

2) Hedge against Email List Attrition. Using email to stimulate social media connections is a hedge against losing a customer connection in the email channel. If and when an email subscriber does want to leave your list, provided they’re connected with you on social media you can still engage and communicate with them there. And that’s better than not at all.
Recognize that as marketing channels continue to proliferate, people have more choice than ever. Some email subscribers will leave your list and instead prefer to connect with you on social media. Some social media fans will never subscribe to your email list. Honor preferences and don’t unreasonably expect everyone to connect with you in every channel.

3) Multiple Channels = More Valuable Customers. It’s a continually proven marketing truth that customers who engage in more than one channel purchase more often and spend more overall than customers who only interact in a single channel. While email is an ideal broadcast and targeted messaging channel, social media is a highly interactive and more conversational than email. The two separately are ideal for different types of messages, but when used together can create powerful, deeper engagement with customers that translates into more sales and higher lifetime customer value.

Don’t overlook email’s potential to initiate a conversation or process which you then continue on social media. It’s likely you’ll receive most customer ideas, suggestions, feedback, reviews and ratings through your social media points of presence. You can even use email to intentionally solicit that sort of input, which you’ll then gather on your social media pages, blog or through surveys. Since email is your broadest online channel, use it to launch a request for feedback, then transfer that conversation, discussion or interactivity to the context it’s best suited for: the social network.

Of course, we’re rarely limited to just a single way of doing anything, although we may have to tackle one method at a time. After leveraging your email to invite connections on social media, you’re ready to do just the opposite: use social media to build your email list. I’ll have a bundle of suggestions for why and how to do so in an upcoming article.

Or the answer could be

INVITE AND ENTICE YOUR SOCIAL COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR EMAIL PROGRAM!

It’s not what you do, but how you do it that matters and determines your success rate. Here is how to do get sign-ups and gathering email addresses from friends and followers on the big three social networks:

1) Facebook – the beauty of Facebook is you have a lot of screen real estate to work with, so be sure to develop a custom business page with a visually attractive email opt-in, e-newsletter sign-up, or other form of registration that gathers an email address. Logically the first response to ask a new Facebook page visitor for is a “Like”, but as soon as they have liked you, you can display a page that explains the benefits they’ll now receive by being connected to you in social media and also invites them to join your email program.

You invite them into email by offering valuable content accessible only when they sign-up, or just explaining the exclusive notices and treatment your email subscribers routinely receive. The point is, don’t just go for the “like” (remember, you don’t “own” your Facebook page – Facebook does!); gather a digital point of contact that is your gateway into longer, more personal messaging.

2) Twitter – Twitter is a little different. You have some real estate to post links or opt-in invitations on your Twitter profile page, but not as much room or depth as on Facebook. So on Twitter, use your tweets themselves to invite, entice and explain the benefits of opting-in to your email. People need to be gently reminded there are multiple ways to get the best deals, exclusive offers and information from you, but don’t over-hype it.

Rather than tweet an invite to sign-up for your email list, tweet a link to the free report, application, widget, game or services trial sitting behind a registration that requires email address. Promote the benefit – what’s in it for them – of your content and services, not what’s in it for you. And do so at least once a day, but not so much that your promotional tweets vastly outnumber your helpful conversational status updates.

3) LinkedIn –LinkedIn offers some powerful and unique features – like groups, discussions and events — for business people that are also great places to promote your content and embed links to your email sign-up and lead capture pages. Of those three I think the most powerful is events. Keep in mind, an “event” can be a webinar, tele-seminar, tele-summit, or other virtual point-in-time gathering that requires minimal investment but is a fantastic list-builder.
Almost anyone registering for a paid or free webinar, tele-class or other virtual gathering knows they must provide their email address as a condition for receiving access information.

So, start routinely planning free or low-cost events and promoting them on LinkedIn (as well as Facebook and Twitter) and watch your email list grow throughout the year.
Of course, we’re rarely limited to just a single way of doing anything, although we may have to tackle one way at a time. Time to get started!