Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Periscope, Pinterest, Linkedin, Snapchat. The list of social media networks does not stop to grow and it is easy to understand why. According to researches there are more than 2.3 billion active social media users in the world, this means that your audience is probably on some sort of social media right now and they are the ones that can help your company’s growth. Social media can facilitate the communication between you and your customer, improve your brand awareness and increase your sales.

There are plenty of things, tactics and strategies that you could use to take advantage of your social media followers, but today we’ll focus on how to combine social media and email marketing to help your marketing strategy to suceed.

First of all, plan your social media strategy

Like all good things, getting the word out takes time. This means you have to build a social media strategy to reach your goals. The first and most important step is to find out where is your audience. Find out which social platform is the best to reach your market, take time to study the platform and when possible, create a targeted advertising on the selected channel.

After choosing the desired platforms, be sure to create the right content for every single one of them. Don’t make the classic mistake of creating one type of content and blasting it onto every social platform: you need a social media channel plan, a schedule for each one of them. Bear in mind that your goals are different on each social platform, so the content you develop for the chosen platform needs to be different as well.

Getting started with your social media strategy? Check out all the components you need for your social media channel plan.

• Channel: what social media channels will you use?
• Persona: who is your audience? Try to be really specific at this stage!
• Goal: what results are your expecting? More sales? Brand awareness? Improve customer experience?
• Content: what kind of content are you going to focus on? Text, images, infographics? Be sure to know what your audience is looking for.
• Structure: how the elements of your post are going to be structured?
• Tone: how are you approaching your community? Casual, funny, sarcastic, formal?
• Desired Action: what reactions are you expecting from your followers?
• Editorial Plan : don’t forget to build your own editorial calendar, its is very important to not forget important dates that would be meaningful for your company or holidays for example.

Now that you have your plan of action, it is time to start posting and promoting your content. And the best way to start it is combining it to your email marketing strategy.

Alright, but why should I use email marketing?

Once you have your social media strategy and channel plan complete, you are ready to use your social media to create successful campaigns, share and engage with your audience. But that’s not all: it’s time to integrate your email marketing to your social media platforms.

Althought 56% of marketers alreadly integrate their social media with email marketing platforms, it’s always good to remember that emails reaches its intended audience 90% of the time while Facebook posts reach only about 2%. So enough with that "email marketing is dying" nonsense. The latest researches show that email marketing is going away anytime soon. Here’s a fact to confirm that:

72% of american adults prefer communication with companies to happen through email, and 60% of marketers say that email marketing is producing a significant ROI for their organization. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

Social media and email marketing are two different channels with two different purposes. One is targeted to build brand awareness, the other is focused on build a more direct communication channel between the company and the customer. In other words, social media can be classified as top funnel whilst email marketing is mid funnel. Still, the best way to integrate them is finding a way to acquire your followers’ contact info through social media.

Social media and email marketing are two different channels with two different purposes - bit.ly/1S6T0bT (via @PipzAutomation)

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Effectively integrate social media and email marketing

When talking about using your social media together with email marketing, I am sure that the first thing that comes to your mind is adding the links to your social network accounts at the header or footer of an email. Although it may be a relevant idea, that may have a very little impact on your email performance and revenue. The links only lead to social connection, which means your customer may become your follower, but when thinking about your whole marketing strategy it’s important to also target the social sharing.

But what is the difference between social connection and social sharing?

• Social Sharing: as the word says, is when a follower shares one of your social contents, for example, retweet one of your blogposts, share a post on Facebook, etc...
• Social Connection: this is simply when your customer connects to your company Facebook page, follow your profile on Twitter, subscribe to your YouTube channel, etc...

The question then arises: how can you actually engage costumers, connect them in your social network and, mostly important, make them share your content with their friends and followers? Fear not, we’re here to give you a few ideas to integrate social media and email marketing for a great engagement strategy:

1. Include social networks links on your email

The simplest and easiest way to communicate to your customer that you are present on social networks is to give them the link to these pages. For example, give them the link to a recent and interesting post on your Facebook page, or to a recent tweet, etc...

But if your goal is to get social sharing you need to work a lot harder. After all, you expect an action from your contacts: share your content with everyone they know. And there’s nothing better than an effective CTA for social sharing.

Everything that applies to a common call to action applies to a call to action for social sharing too. First of all, capture the attention of your customer with a button that stands out, easy to see and easy to click. You have to give them a reason to click, so don’t forget to appeal to their emotions. And here’s a last tip: you can also try putting more than one CTA.

2. Send an email newsletter dedicated to one of your social networks

A great way to create an integration between your email marketing strategy and social media is sending dedicated email campaigns to promote your social networks. For instance, you can create a newsletter to promote the most engaging Facebook post of that week, showcasing to your subscribers what’s on the post and asking them to follow or like your page:

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3. Share your newsletter on your social network

Why not using your Twitter profile or Facebook fan page to get more subscribers and possible opportunities to your mailing list? You can share an interesting content of your newsletter on Facebook and ask your followers if they already receive your email marketing. If not, give them a link to a subscription form where they can sign up immediately.

Another way of doing this is using the Call To Action feature from Facebook, a sign up form to encourage your fans to opt into your email list. So you can use your Facebook fan page to tell your fans about upcoming emails and content on their inbox.

The cherry on top: if recipients sign up for your newsletter via social media, they expect to receive an email and will take extra care to make sure it doesn´t accidentally fall into the spam folder.

4. Create content according to your customer’s preferences

Your fans are more likely to spread the word if the content of your emails is relevant and interesting. Think of a content that provides value to potential costumers and focus on information that is useful for them or their friends.

If they are more likely to share events, keep them updated about upcoming workshops and seminars. On the other hand, if they’re more interested on tips and insights about a specific subject, send regular emails with quotes from great minds from the industry. Once again the keyword is knowledge. If you know your customer habits, likes and dislikes, you have more chances to create relevant content.

5. Give some sort of incentive

Giveaways and discounts are always a good type of incentive but you can also be a creative and creating a campaign that combines social media and email marketing. Take a look at the example below:

The company offers a chance to win a giftcard if the customer uses a specific hashtag in one of their social networks. By doing that the customer spreads the hashtag around the web, which helps building the brand awareness. The company is more likely to get more followers while its content is shared.

6. Personalize your subject lines

Pay special attention to your subject lines to reach higher open rates. It may be interesting to create different subject lines to different lists, after all each social media audience has its own particularities.

For example, if you are using a list with contacts who came from your Facebook company page, study what kind of tone and topics are more interesting for them. High-performance subject lines can make great headlines for Facebook ads. They also make great opening lines for Facebook posts.

Try to think of social media and email marketing as pieces of a gear. They can be perfectly used together to give a boost on your marketing strategy. Your social media accounts can help you propagate your message to an uncountable number of potential customers, and email marketing can turn your communication with these potential customers much more intense and lucrative.

Integrating social media and email marketing will take your customer relationship to the next level. Keep your eyes and mind open to new social media tools and never underestimate their capacity of reaching new audience and how you can use them to grow your email list and, therefore, your sales.