You have email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Gentlemint, Spotify, Tumblr… literally dozens of networks to market on. You can reach an audience through any combination of the above.
As an email marketer, you know that the most valuable connections happen in private email inboxes. But activity on social networks, where fans can share with friends who share with contacts, is more visible.
Where To Market?
Choose a social network or two to be present on (consider where your target demographic hangs out to help you choose). You’ll only be able to share bits and snippets, but you’ll be highly share-able. Supplement that with email, where you can follow up with those interested over the long term, engaging them more deeply and eventually securing their business.
To make the most of your social and email marketing efforts, tie them together with a campaign that engages your fans on both platforms. I’m going to provide two examples of brands that do this well.
Lara Landon
Spiritual singer Lara Landon has a thriving Facebook following. Because she wants to send her fans messages that are longer than a Facebook post allows, she invited them to join her email list.
Note that she mentioned the special content she’d be sending her email subscribers twice. Once someone is following your brand on one platform, they need a good reason to join you on another, as well.
EmergenC
EmergenC came up with a fun way to get their loyal followers to evangelize for them. They invited their email subscribers to “Say It With Fruit,” by sending their Facebook friends a special, customized video.
This strengthened the loyalty of the sender and gave the recipients a fun, personalized experience they associated with the brand. At the end of the video, recipients had the opportunity to “like” EmergenC’s page and create their own video.
First, the email went out.
Subscribers created videos on Facebook.
Recipients enjoyed the video while being exposed to the brand.
Merging Audiences, Separating Content
The main benefit of merging your social and email audiences is enabling greater exposure to your content, and therefore, greater engagement with your brand. As with all privileges, however, this does come with a responsibility: creating separate content for each channel.
If you post the same information on social media as you’re including in your emails, you’re likely to lose readers on both sides.
Instead, carefully select unique content for each channel, keeping in mind the limitations and benefits of each platform, and you’ll be well on your way to having an audience that enjoys following your updates wherever they find them.
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