In this post you will find out:
- How to use social media to grow your email list
- How to use your email list to grow your fan base
Let’s put aside the discussion on what is more effective in communicating to your customer: social media or email marketing.
Each of these channels has it’s strong and weak points. Email has a higher open rate and is great for retention and lead generation. Social media is ideal for user generated content, community building, branding, and staying top-of-the mind for your customers.
These two channels can have a slightly different audience, but they feed into each other. You should be strategic and instead of making completely different campaigns, think of how you can create “touch points” to integrate both channels.
So, how can you make email marketing and social media work together?
Source: Marketing Eye Global
Why Should You Integrate Social Media and Email Marketing?
There are several good reasons for integration:
- Integration extends your email reach.
- It can help you grow your email list by using your social media audience.
- Your email list can help you grow a community of devoted fans in social media.
- With email you can identify the key supporters that have the highest open and click through rates and create campaigns only for this audience.
- It offers your subscribers more ways to communicate with you. Email is not the only way to communicate. Social channels are good for two way communication.
Using Social Media to Grow Your Email List
1. Ask people to subscribe
Are you sure that your fans and social media followers know that you have a newsletter at all?
To be on the safe side, remind them from time to time and don’t forget to provide a link to the sign up page.
By the way, when you ask your followers to subscribe to your newsletter, you should clearly articulate the value proposition.
You can also:
- Show a preview of your newsletter content
- Offer sign-up incentives
2. Offer subscription options on your social media page
Another way to integrate your email with your social media account is to activate Facebook sign up button on your header, like here:
This button is linked to a landing page where you can subscribe to newsletter.
To avoid interrupting user’s browsing experience, you can activate Facebook subscription tab. It is a tab on your Facebook page where you put a simple sign up form.
In Twitter you can use Twitter lead generation cards.
For this you need to create a Twitter ads account and a privacy policy explaining how you are going to use personal information (emails) received through the lead generation card.
Also, don’t forget to offer some incentives to subscribe, like free e-book, gift, or “free” access to something.
3. Make subscribers of your social networks aware that you have a newsletter
If you have a really strong following on one of the social networks, you can promote your newsletter there too. Check out this example from Zuzka Light – a fitness trainer:
4. Launch a contest on social media
You can organize a promotional campaign offering prizes in exchange of contact details of your followers.
A research shows that multiple small-value prizes are more likely to attract more participants, because people believe that there is a higher chance of getting a prize.
Use Email to Grow Your Follower Base on Social Media
4. Add social media icons
There is a very good reasons to add social media icons at the end of your email: you create consistency in your marketing efforts and connect the two marketing channels together.
This way you can make your subscribers aware of your other marketing outlets.
Source: Really Good Emails
Social sharing buttons can also be on top of your email. But you should figure the best location yourself by testing your emails.
5. Ask your subscribers to share your email on social media
Sometimes it is not enough just to place social media icons in your email. The purpose of the buttons may not be exactly clear for your subscribers.
You can simply ask them to share your email using social media or follow you somewhere next to the buttons or in the email body, like here
Source: Really Good Emails
6. Run an email campaign to increase your social media followers
You can boost the growth of your social channels by running an email campaign to promote them.
This is how Handy makes its’ users aware of its social channels:
Source: Really Good Emails
7. Make a giveaway/ social contest
You can make a giveaway or social contest and then promote it using email. In order to win something your users have to move from email channel to one or another of your social media outlets.
8. Use your email list to create ads in social media
Most likely, if you use any of EPS you will be able to export your email list as a CSV file and then use it to create ads in Facebook and Twitter.
Or you can use your email list to simulate an audience on Facebook that is similar to your subscribers.
In this post Neil Patel describes in detail how to launch a Facebook or Twitter ad campaign using your email list.
Now it’s your turn
Email marketing and social media are not two stand-alone marketing channels. They perfectly complement each other.
Wise integration of both channels may become a great source of growth and new leads for your company.
