Integrating Your Email Marketing and Social Media Strategy

Email marketing is something that is too often underestimated as a marketing strategy, however, when done correctly it can be a major asset to a business. To help you take advantage of all that this platform has to offer, we’ve compiled a list of our top tips for seamless social media integration into your email marketing strategy.

But first, why is it so important to include social media in your email marketing strategy anyways? Email marketing is another effective method of extending the reach of your business to a larger audience. It is a great way to provide your subscribers with a ‘one-stop-shop’ to keep up with discounts, updates, and convey other important information.

The relevance of adding email marketing to your social strategy has become even more apparent in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as people turn to online forms of communication now more than ever. It is important to have a strong strategy during this time, and although we will hopefully return to a new normal at some point in the near future, email marketing will persist as a crucial practice that will help further the reach of your business. 

Without further ado, here are some key points to keep in mind when integrating social media into your email marketing strategy.

Tip 1: Email Marketing Should Work Synchronously With Your Social Media Strategy

When looking to incorporate email marketing into your social media strategy, the two should be viewed as one and the same rather than separate entities. In other words, your newsletter should complement and work in tandem with your social media, and vice versa. 

Aligned with this, and maybe the most important thing to employ is a holistic approach to marketing. Something that we use here at The Influence Agency and have had great success with, this approach sees all branches of marketing joining together as one to create the best possible outcome. Although this is helpful on many fronts, it’s a must when integrating email marketing with your social media strategy to create a cohesive platform for your audience.

So how do you go about doing this? There are numerous ways to make the two flow seamlessly, but one way that we achieve this is through calls to action in our newsletters. It’s crucial to include prompts that ask your audience to engage and perform a particular action. To do so, you may choose to include a section near the bottom of your newsletter that says something along the lines of “follow us on our socials”, and then include the links to your accounts. Additionally, you can include sample images from your social feeds that entice people to check out your social media accounts. 

Bringing that element of your social media into your newsletter is an effective way of connecting the two forms of marketing. Including your business’ contact information such as a phone number or email where you can be reached is also important in making it easy for people to get in touch with you.

Tip 2: Keep Your Newsletter Simple, People Don’t Want to Be Overloaded With Information

One thing that makes social media marketing so valuable and effective is that in today’s day and age, people have very little patience or time to be sifting through large amounts of information. Social media is often in contrast to this. 

Expect that a large amount of your newsletter subscribers will be coming from your social platforms, and recognize that they may not want to read your newsletter if it’s not concise – so make sure to only discuss relevant information. While a newsletter is definitely meant to contain more information than, for example, an Instagram post, you still want to maintain your audience’s attention. Keep the email informative and detailed, and do not aim to include everything, but rather only the absolutely necessary news. We suggest including any promotions, special events that are happening, important announcements, discounts that are available, or other similar information that you want to be highlighted for that time period. 

We also find it valuable to include strong visual elements such as pictures, graphic designs, or images from your social feeds as mentioned earlier. This is fundamental in breaking up information, intriguing people to read more, and even just catching the eye of your audience in the first place.

Tip 3: Include Incentives For Your Subscribers to Engage With

Our third tip for integrating email marketing with your social media strategy is to include incentives in your newsletter that will encourage your audience to interact with your social accounts. Let them know that if they follow your Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter page (or even get their family and friends to do so), they will receive a certain discount from your business. You may not realize the value of doing this, but the truth is that people are excited and driven by any incentive, no matter how small it is. It could be as little as a 10% discount that they receive for following you or liking your post, but because we all love a good discount, you may be surprised how many people will do this! 

It’s a great way to encourage a cohesive marketing strategy because while following or liking your social media accounts may be a free action for your audience to perform, you are growing your business in important ways and gaining attention from potential customers. This method will encourage clients to check out your email newsletter while adding traction to your social platforms.

Tip 4: Host Giveaways on Your Social Media to Encourage People to Sign-up For Your Newsletters

Promote your email newsletter on your social media accounts by hosting giveaways for your followers, whether this is through a feed post or story. Similar to using incentives, people are highly encouraged by the thought of anything free, and will jump at the chance to enter a giveaway. This works in reverse to the last tip because while providing incentives in your newsletter helps people interact with your social accounts, this tip helps your social followers become a subscriber of your newsletter. 

So, after posting the giveaway across your social channels, ask them to sign up to become a mailing list subscriber before entering the contest. In doing so, you may find it helpful to take it one step further and write a small blurb of why they should subscribe, and what’s unique about what they will get out of the newsletter versus what they are already seeing on your social media. Make it known that there are special discounts and exclusive offers that they will only find in your newsletter. This will encourage them to check it out!

Wrap up

In a world full of information, where attention is a hard-to-come-by commodity that you have to fight for, it is crucial to take a holistic approach when including email marketing in your business’ social media integration. This will ensure that the two forms of communication are working to support each other and in turn, help further your relationship with your current client, and begin lasting ones with new clients. Our team has had great success with these tips and they will surely help you stand out in the crowd!