Friday, September 17, 2010

Social Media- Forcing Changes in Email Marketing

Social media is not inspiring changes in email marketing, but instead forcing changes. Social media sites offer consumers the ability to interact with companies in a very unique and personal way. Their questions can be answered and their comments can he heard. Ultimately, social media has led to consumers being the driving force of conversation. In order for email marketing to remain a relevant revenue generator, it too must follow the trend of more personalized communication.

No longer is it acceptable to just place a few re-direct links to your social media pages on the top or bottom of your email message. Social media is forcing email to get genuine and to make the message more of a one-to-one conversation. Are you doing everything right to keep up with this overarching trend? Are you giving sharing with your readers exactly what they want to see? Are you encouraging two-way communication?

Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind when analyzing your current approach:

Your email content must be personable. The appeal of connecting to a company through a social media site is that the user gets to feel more in touch with the brand. The company, through updates, photos, and discussions, gets a more humanized feel. Your emails should follow this trend. Start talking with the customer as opposed to talking to them.

Social media networks offer companies the ability to encourage, interact with, and analyze user content. “Fans” or “Followers” of your company have the exciting ability to comment about your company. You should build off of that feature within your email-increase inclusion of user generated content into your email messages. Adding user content gives your subscribers the power to help promote your product or service to other users.

Make sure each of your campaigns have a facebook, twitter, and other social media button so your users can directly share the content on their personal pages. Email messages can be shared far easier than ever before. At a click of a link, a subscriber can share your email message with their entire “network”. However, you shouldn’t just assume that your content is compelling enough to drive subscribers to share.

While social media is getting most of the marketing buzz, let’s not forget that email marketing does a better job of converting sales. You must look to manage communication through both mediums together, not separately. We want the best for our clients, and we realize that it begins with strategy.

Here at KobeMail, the leader in email deliverability, we encourage you to analyze your current email strategy. Subscribers are becoming more demanding of relevant and personal email content. Proper strategy behind social media, when paired with email marketing campaigns, will lead to an increase in revenue as well as a broader reach of your message.

Author: Peter Schirripa

Editor: Courtney Dillsworth, Yasifur Rahman