2 Ways To Unite Social Media and Email Marketing and Double Conversions

There’s nothing more disappointing as a marketer than slaving over a great piece of content, then not getting the downloads, registrations, or views you were hoping for.

Smart marketers know that whether you’re marketing for a B2B or B2C company, providing value in your marketing content is one of the best ways to entice prospects to take action and become a lead in your marketing automation system.

So, assuming your free eBooks, educational webinars, blog posts, and newsletters do just that, why are your new lead numbers plateauing?

Two of the most popular ways of promoting your company’s marketing content are social media and email marketing. Most likely you’re utilizing both of these already - but, are they intertwined? 

In this post, I won’t discuss email and social media marketing on their own, but I’ll show you two ways you can unite your social media promotion and email marketing efforts to double the views, conversions, and ultimately new customers from your marketing content.

1. Ask For The Share Via Email

Are the people who are registering for your webinar sharing it with their friends and colleagues? Have you made it easy for them to do so?

As the old saying goes, “birds of a feather flock together.”

Likely the people who are engaging with your content have friends and colleagues who would like your webinar too - if you can effectively extend your reach through sharing calls-to-action, you can easily double your audience.

Here are two ways to ask for the share in your email marketing.

1. Share Links in Email Blasts

If you are using an email marketing system, there should be an option to include share links for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and email within your blast.

First create a “web page version” of your email blast and use that URL as the link to the share icons.

For the best results, don’t leave these valuable share icons hiding in the corners of your email; call attention to them. Try using a header or footer banner image with an arrow that points to them, or literally writing out in the email a call to action to use the share link.

It’s not a big ask; people love to share valuable and helpful tools with others because it makes them look good.

2. Post Form-Fill Sharing Shout-Out

Don’t forget about the people who already downloaded your eBook or registered for your webinar, they have more value beyond just their own conversion. Include in your follow-up email or follow-up workflow messaging a call to action to share the fact that they just registered for your webinar or downloaded a piece of your content. 

One great tool is Click To Tweet, which allows your prospects to literally tweet in one click a message that you’ve pre-created for them. For example, at Likeable Local, we craft share messaging like, “I just downloaded this free #socialmedia eBook for #SMBs from @likeablelocal. Check it out!”

The key to post-form-fill sharing calls to action is making them as simple as possible. Anything that allows people to share in under 15 seconds will render the greatest results.

2. Socially Retarget Prospects with “Cold Feet”

The conversion rate of your landing pages and campaigns is an important metric. How many people viewed that webinar registration page, but didn’t sign-up? How many people clicked the link in your email to go to that page, but didn’t sign-up?

Clearly the click and the view indicate interest, but why didn’t they take the plunge and convert?

Sometimes, these “cold feet” prospects just need a little reminder to come back to your content dangled in front of their noses (repeated exposures to your messaging can have a nurturing effect, helping them progress toward that "Yes".) 

Facebook retargeting ads are a super effective new way to do this. Here’s how you can retarget your “cold feet” leads on Facebook in three steps following your initial marketing email.

1) Make sure your marketing campaign has both an initial form fill page and also a “thank you” page  that is triggered when they convert.

2) Create a custom audience in Facebook Ads Manager based on “website visits.” Include people who have viewed the first form fill page and exclude those who have viewed the “thank you” page. This will isolate only those who have not yet converted.

3) Run a Facebook Ad campaign towards this custom audience to this particular piece of content.

Now, as you continue to push people towards your content, those who have expressed interest but have not converted will continue to be reminded when they're on Facebook. The good news is, Americans spend an average of 37 minutes per day dedicated to social media so you’re bound to get some good air time!

To summarize: email marketing and social media marketing are both powerful tools for lead generation, but together they have twice the potential. You can extract double the value from an email marketing blast by incorporating social sharing and social retargeting.

By the way, if you want some great tips on social advertising, Likeable Local's eBook "Driving Success Through Social Ads" might hit the spot. 

How do you plan on incorporating social media marketing into your next email campaign? Please leave a comment below.

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/nicole-kroese/2015-07-15/2-ways-unite-social-media-and-email-marketing-and-double?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+%28all+posts%29