Social Media And Email Marketing Means A Happy New Year Return

Social email. It’s kind of catchy, right? Social customers and email subscribers definitely belong in the same sentence together. Why? In a nutshell, social media and email marketing is a perfect match made in marketing heaven.

So if you’re not already, why not start the New Year off right and integrate the two? With a joined up strategy, which is so “in” for 2013, the channels can complement each other and become more than the sum of their parts. By combining efforts, you’ll be able to optimise results and discover data that you could have only dreamt about in the past.

Even if this may seem obvious to some already, the trickier part may be how to effectively incorporate your social media and email marketing campaigns.

With that in mind, here are some best practices of integrating social media and email marketing:

1. Add social media sharing to email campaigns. The ability for subscribers to post a marketing email on social networks (AKA “Share With Your Network”) with their friends and extended network provides a perfect opportunity to extend the reach of your email campaign. As a good rule of thumb, think about what you’re asking your audience to share and which networks they’re likely to use.

2. Add an email opt-in form on your social sites. Since social customers tend to expect more from brands and companies via social media channels, reach out to them even further by providing multiple platforms for people to subscribe to your email campaign. It’s an easy and effective way to use the power of social sites to grow your email subscriber’s list.

3. Include original and engaging content. Do more that just cut and paste blog posts on other social networks in your newsletter. It’s alright to share a few pieces from your blog for consistent cross-channel messaging but include other ingredients too like advice tips, great tools or upcoming conferences that look interesting.

4. Be consistent with your branding. From your email subscribers to your social site fans and followers, your look and message should remain consistent. Use a consistent color palette, font, logo and wording. This will better help your subscribers and fans (your future brand ambassadors) build a complete picture of your brand as they’re skimming and scanning across multiple platforms.

Email marketing can really power social media and vice-versa. So what are you waiting for? Start integrating social media into your email campaigns today for incredible 2013 results!