It’s widely considered that email marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your business. However, that doesn’t mean that you should shun other marketing methods. Nowadays, the wide variety of social media channels available provide a great way to encourage customers to visit your website and to increase sales. Email marketing can be incredibly useful in driving subscribers to your social media channels, particularly if you have a lot of customers who are not very active on social media. And, the more followers you have on on your social media channels, the wider your potential customer base will be.
Here are some tips to help you use email marketing to boost your social media channels:
Include Social Sharing Icons
The simplest way to encourage your subscribers to join you on social media is to include social sharing icons in your emails. They are usually placed at the bottom on an email, and they allow your subscribers to join your social media channels with a single click. These icons are a great way of showing your readers other ways that they can connect with your brand.
Dorothy Perkins include these icons at the bottom of their marketing emails. They also include a link to download their mobile app; another way for their customers to connect and shop with them:
Ask Your Subscribers to Join
The problem with social sharing icons is that, with them hidden at the bottom of emails, they can easily be ignored by your readers. Subscribers will usually have to be actively interested in joining your social media channels in order to click on them. If you are finding that your social sharing icons are being largely ineffective, you can go one step further: ask your subscribers to join you on social media. Include a link to one of your social media pages, and let your readers know what they can expect to find your the page.
Kikkoman including this link to their Facebook page, along with their Twitter handle, in their newsletter:
Showcase Your Social Media Channels
Some customers will only join a social media channel if they feel that it will benefit them, or if it provides them with some kind of value. However, the only way they will know this is if they can see the kind of things that you feature on your social media pages. You can do this by dedicating a marketing email to your social media channels. Show your readers what they can expect to see on each of your pages, and include clear links so they can easily join if they want to.
House of Fraser sent this email showing their customers what they can expect from each of their social media channels:
Run a Competition
Running a competition can be a great way to get people to share your message on social media (for example, they could get one entry into your competition every time they share your post). However, you first need to advertise the fact that you are running a competition. Use a marketing email to let your subscribers know about your social media competition. You will be likely to get some more followers off the back of it.
Sizzix used their marketing email to let their subscribers know about their social media competition:
Email marketing can do a lot to increase social engagement with your company. Make the effort to showcase your social media pages in your emails, and you’ll soon see the benefits.
