It’s been stated before that adding social components to email marketing campaigns have led to higher engagement levels. Many publishers are now wondering what exactly constitutes as social email marketing campaigns.
For those wondering, combining social networking with email marketing is about more than including social icons in emails (although that is a good starting point).
The initial steps of combining email marketing and social are for leveraging the audiences from each platform, engaging those subscribers, and persuading them to act.
Need some suggestions for bringing the conceptualized idea of social email marketing to fruition? Here are five examples of how you can use email to promote your social activities.
Five social email marketing tips
Social email marketing tip #1: Utilize tips from video email marketers. According to a survey released by the Web Video Marketing Council and Flimp Media in March 2012, “52% of respondents have used video email marketing and of those that have used it, 88% report that integrating video with email marketing has made a positive impact.” 
Many of these same respondents believe consumers are more likely to convert or make a purchase with video (72%), while 76% believe integrating video into email marketing increase click-through rate.
Since directly incorporating video into email campaigns isn’t supported by most email and Internet service providers, the most effective way to present video, according to the survey, is to link to a video landing page. This way, users can access the video content with one additional click. A video landing page also allows the creator to add search engine optimized copy, to increase the likelihood of getting found through search.
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Social email marketing tip #2: Implement a Twitter competition and promote it through email. If you are promoting specific content, or a new product, you should announce the campaign through email. At that point, you can tell your email subscribers to follow you on Twitter, and that those followers who retweet messages about your new product will be entered to win a prize.
Social email marketing tip #3: Survey your readers. Do you know what your audience members like the most about your email newsletters? Are their aspects of your email marketing campaigns that they genuinely appreciate? Asking these questions to your audience members can help you better understand your audience, and makes changes that would enhance the relationship.
Social email marketing tip #4: Use email to promote Facebook deals. This example was discussed in another recent post. On Facebook, you can inform your followers that discounts will be offered when your follower level reaches a specific number. Doing so encourages them to spread the word to their contacts, if the deal is enticing. This campaign could be announced via email, just like the Twitter campaign mentioned above.
Social email marketing tip #5: Encouraging reviews. This type of engagement is perfect if you have a lifecycle email marketing campaign in place and the request for a review could come after a product is purchased and received. If a lifecycle email marketing campaign isn’t in the works, you could ask content reviews where users could include their opinions. Offering something in exchange for a review always makes the offer sweeter.
Have you tried any of these social email marketing tips? Do you have any other recommendations? Add your comments below.
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Originally published 3/21/12
