How to use social media and email to maximise your digital marketing plan
Email marketing or social media: Which is the most effective in engaging with your audience? By Rob Martin.
Email is certainly more personal as it arrives to a private space away from the busy world of social media. It also has a 100% delivery rate, whereas no matter how engaging your content on social media might be, you are constantly competing with others to reach all of your followers.
You’ve probably read dozens of blog posts and articles on why email is more effective than social media and vice versa.
As an email marketing software company, we’ll always vote for email and not because we’re biased, but because studies have proven that email endures. It’s a battle-tested survivor.
However, this isn’t another one of the many “email is better than social” blog posts that are out there. Email marketing and social media are both key tools in your overall digital marketing plan so while we may favour email, we’d never recommend neglecting social media completely.
The two can be used to complement one another and therefore maximise your digital marketing plan.
Have a content plan for both channels, and make sure the goals tie in with your overall marketing objectives.
Signup
To build your list in email marketing, you have to start somewhere and a strong, eye-catching sign-up form on your website is a good place to start.
You should also take advantage of your social media channels as you can use social to grow your list.
Ensure your sign-up form is visible on all social channels you’re present on. If there’s a call-to-action button on your profile, use that to promote your form, and encourage subscribers.
Advertise
Make the most of the advertising and promotional tools on social media to target a specific audience. Consider offering something like a discount or an ebook to persuade people to exchange their email address.
Use paid posts to advertise your sign-up form, and be strategic when setting up ads. There’s nothing more infuriating than subscribing to a newsletter and waiting weeks before anything arrives in your inbox. So, run your adverts a few days or a week before sending out your new campaign.
Share
Social media is also a great way of promoting your newsletter content. Including social share buttons throughout your email campaign will allow subscribers to tweet / like / share the campaign content, and attract potential new subscribers.
If you are just getting started in email marketing, there’s no harm in sharing a link to the entire email on social media. By offering your followers a taster of what you send, you will recruit more subscribers.
Likewise, you can use email to increase engagement on social media. Integrating social share buttons encourages your subscribers to visit your social profiles and connect with your business there.
Cross promote content on all platforms
Remember that email is more exclusive than social media so keep it that way. If you’re promoting similar content on social media to your email campaign, make sure your campaign is sent out first before you share any articles, new products or promotions on your social channels.
If your company has a big announcement, build up momentum with short posts on social media to encourage new followers to sign up and hear the news first.