In the fall of 2012, CMOs who were surveyed saw social media as having the biggest impact on their email marketing strategy in the near future. This report coincides with a more recent one that placed social media as the second highest priority for email integration for 2013, falling behind mobile marketing by just one percentage point.
Online marketing is maturing to unexpected levels. There is higher demand for increased personalization thanks to social media. Likewise, email marketing campaigns continually experience greater return on investment when emails are customized to their recipients' preferences.
When combining social media and email marketing, you can achieve the highest level of personalization, second only to real-time human one-on-one communication. The challenge for any business is knowing how to convert social followers to their email marketing initiatives.
Converting Social followers to the email world:
For Facebook – add an email opt-in form on your Facebook page. Not many companies do this, so you can be a trail blazer in this area.
On Twitter – a little shameless promotion does not hurt, but of course you have to do this gracefully. You can simply ask your followers to join your email newsletter, then provide the direct link to the form. A more subtle way is to provide the opt-in form on every one of your web pages. When your followers visit your website, they can see the invitation to join your list.
LinkedIn Groups – a great way to represent your company. By creating a group in LinkedIn, you can share content and invite users to join your list.
The key to successfully carrying out a social media initiative to grow your email list is to provide incentives to your audience. Give them email teasers, have them download a free report, or invite them to a webinar. Your options are limitless.