More and more now we’re seeing social strategies that just yearn for a bit of a kick. Sure there’s always new campaigns to run and other networks to establish your brand upon, but why not look back to something that works? Something that has been tried and proven, has a track record, and doesn’t cost the earth? Why not email-marketing?

When put up against social media, the only real overlapping, competitive metric between the two is the competition for engagement and screen time. Used hand in hand, with good brand continuity across the two and smart strategic planning, pairing email with social could be your key to success.

 

We’ve surmised a few key takeaways for integrating email marketing into your social strategy –

Be Proactive

Today, social platforms push news and updates out quicker than any other media outlet. If you want your emails to be truly click-worthy, you need to incorporate that element of timeliness into your messages. Really you don’t want to be posting out email campaigns about events and topics that occurred 3 weeks ago – leverage trends/trending topics, updates relevant to your industry, as well as recent/upcoming developments with your business to reel the readers in. Throw a subject line together that just screams ‘clickbait’ and comprises a timely or exclusive headline.

All About Your Audience

Not dissimilar to social, email marketing possesses the tools to segment and target different audiences, as well as deliver messages to specific contacts. We all know that personalisation and targeting is the underlying key to any marketing strategy, and these fundamentals aren’t lost when you take on email marketing. Furthermore when you send these emails out, they are going solely to the recipients’ address – unlike social media which offers the element of virality. This may be attractive if you wish to keep your email marketing a somewhat exclusive exercise, which lead us to our next point.

Exclusivity vs Virality

You’re in the drivers seat when it comes to your email delivery – you can select precisely, and have confidence in exactly who sees your updates. Meanwhile on social, you have little control over who/when/how it is shown on social media, as each networks’ algorithms determine these factors; meaning virtually anyone can access and view your content.

Though you do end up paying for the privilege. Email marketing – although considerably affordable and cost effective – will still run you up a bill, while establishing a presence on Social is totally free. You will end up throwing money at your social channels, so the immediate decisive factor really ends up being whether you want your content to be delivered exclusively or whether you want to broadcast it. Other factors such as audience size/targeting/CPC/etc will ultimately make your decision clear.

Use Existing Social Information

You want the content inside your emails to really hit home with your recipients. As a brand, you should be tuning into and researching your customers/clients’ consumer preferences. If you run an email sign-up promo on social, make sure you track from which network people sign up from. For instance, if a contact signs up via Instagram, you should ensure that emails delivered to that person are rich with images. If she signs up through Twitter, her email messages may be best received when concise and to the point.

Link Back
Remember to constantly promote either platform upon one another – throw social links in the bottom of your emails, while publishing an email sign-up post (with an incentive, of course!) to create a bit of consistency.

In summary, social strategies should always link directly to email marketing efforts. You’ll find that content mixes for either platform are very similar, and should be coordinated between. Additionally, email may be the way for you to close those customers that always seem to escape your social campaigns!