Combine Social Media and Email Marketing for Better Branding
Digital marketing performs best when your various channels and platforms work together. A cohesive, multi-channel brand experience creates a more personal connection with your followers by presenting a holistic impression of what your brand stands for.
Today’s consumers want community. They want the chance to know the people behind their favorite companies as well as the company’s brand ambassadors. Prioritizing a strong social media presence (alongside your other digital marketing strategies) allows your consumers that opportunity.
Through your social media posts, your consumers get to know you. Through comments and custom hashtags, consumers get to know one another.
However, social media is notoriously fickle. You don’t own the platform and you don’t own the data. At any time, social media platforms can—and do—change up the algorithms that allow you to engage with your followers.
Social media and email marketing in tandem
So, with all that in mind…what is a 21st-century brand to do?
The answer to that question is simple: Integrate!
It’s time that marketers stopped thinking of social media and email marketing as an either/or situation. You should consider them different channels allowing you to promote the same message for your brand.
Leveraging both social media and email marketing channels allow you to:
■ Connect and interact with followers in a one-to-one capacity.
■ Promote your values and tell your story.
■ Build an emotional connection with customers
All of these opportunities lead to better results for your business, but the key is to use social media and email in tandem. Introduce custom hashtags online to promote user-generated content (UGC) that you can use across your website, social platforms, and email, promote your subscription online to grow your list, and feature social proof in your emails to encourage conversions.
How to integrate social media into your email campaigns
When you’re ready to integrate your social media and email marketing, it’s a good idea to craft social-media-focused emails or email campaigns. By dedicating an email every few months to promote your social profiles, a custom hashtag, or feature UGC from your loyal fans, you ensure your consumers never forget your presence on social media.
Here are a few examples of what social-focused emails can look like:
Dunkin Donuts
Dunkin Donuts promotes its social media profiles by dedicating an email to loyal fans. This will encourage your subscribers to engage with you on another platform—always a plus—and it also leads to greater investment from your followers.
When people see their social posts in your emails or when you repost their content, it tells them that you’re listening and paying attention. They aren’t just shouting into some void, they’re actually interacting with you directly.
Seeing their posts on your profile and in your email engenders warm and fuzzy feelings in your subscribers. It proves to them that you want to hear from them and value their part in your story.
Quiz
Quiz clothing taps into the power of social media and email marketing by running a social media contest. By including information about the contest in their email, Quiz ensures their most loyal and dedicated followers don’t miss the opportunity to participate and win.
This campaign also includes physical ads. Quiz has integrated their most powerful channels for marketing into one campaign in order to achieve the most impressions possible. They take their digital campaign and give it a physical, experiential component.
You know the people most likely to engage with your brand are already on your email list; that’s why it’s so successful as a marketing tool. These are the people who are most likely to take the effort to go find your ad and follow through with the multiple steps to enter this contest.
By combining the max reach of social media with the max engagement of email, this campaign multiplies its opportunities to be a huge success.
Parabo Press
Parabo Press feature some of their favorite posts that use their custom hashtag, #ParaboPress. When it comes to social media, simplicity is key. They’ve found a way to regularly connect with their VIPs, Very Important Printers.
By including user-generated images, Parabo Press is incorporating social proof and encouraging subscribers to make a purchase.
When you combine the trustworthy and reliable channel of email with the reach and discovery power of social media, you ensure that your marketing efforts reach their maximum potential.
Wrap up
This email encourages subscribers to engage with them on social media. The beautiful images from customers help subscribers visualize what Parabo Press’ products will look like in their own homes, leading to more conversions.