Email and social media are considered two of the best channels for engaging with customers (aside from organic search), but most marketers treat them as two separate platforms.
In fact, they’re typically even more effective when combined together to take advantage of each one’s unique strengths.
Creating a more cohesive online experience will move users through the sales funnel more efficiently and help you achieve your marketing goals.
Today, I will cover a few of the most powerful strategies for using email and social media together for better traffic and sales.
1. Encourage People to Sign Up for Your Lists via Social
The simplest way to make your email and social media presences complement each other is to lead users across channels to engage with your brand on multiple platforms.
You can put a link to your website in your social media bio, for example, and make occasional posts advertising your email list.
Related: here’s how to grow your Instagram followers.
Keep the messaging consistent
Keep in mind that effective cross-channel promotion depends on a consistent brand impression across every platform.
Readers will lose interest if your email content has a different tone from what they’re used to seeing on your social media profiles.
You can do the same thing in reverse by including links to your social media pages in every marketing email.
Most brands add these buttons at the bottom of each message near the unsubscribe button. Use the social media platform’s logo as the button to draw your audience’s attention.
In addition to gathering email addresses through social media, you can also upload your contact list back to social media to create more continuous interactions across channels.
Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms make it easy to sync your email list through Custom Audiences.
2. Use Retargeting Ads on Facebook
It’s substantially cheaper to sell to existing customers than to new ones, and retargeting is one of the most valuable kinds of marketing campaigns.
Facebook provides a variety of retargeting options that make it the perfect place to get started with your first retargeting campaign.
Facebook allows you to create three basic kinds of custom audiences depending on the goals of each campaign:
- The first option, customer list, simply finds people on Facebook who have already engaged with you through email, over the phone, or via another channel.
- Website traffic audiences, on the other hand, target people who have visited your brand’s website or performed certain actions, such as making a purchase. The Facebook pixel enables you to track user behavior using numerous parameters for thorough customization during each campaign.
- Finally, app activity audiences behave similarly to website traffic audiences but are based on activity in a game or app. All three types of custom audiences can be useful, so don’t forget to test out different options depending on your buyer personae.
You can apply retargeting to email specifically by setting up campaigns that target users who clicked through on your marketing emails.
This is the perfect way to engage with readers on multiple channels and move them through the sales funnel more quickly.
While Facebook’s native retargeting tools are robust on their own, you can access even more functionality with a third-party service that offers additional features.
Perfect Audience, for example, is designed to facilitate retargeting campaigns through your website, app, or Facebook page.
Try multiple types of campaigns
With so many options available to marketers, it’s impossible to determine which types of campaigns will perform best for any given business. The only way to consistently improve and stay ahead of the competition is to try new strategies whenever possible—don’t be afraid to experiment with unconventional tactics.
Retargeting campaigns generally lead to a higher conversion rate and lower cost per sale than those that target new users, so it’s important to make retargeting a priority in your marketing practices. Facebook is just one method for retargeting, as you can also set up retargeting campaigns via email and other channels.
Drip email campaigns, for example, allow you to configure certain emails to send automatically in response to certain triggers. They’re one of the best strategies for maximizing your email marketing ROI as they target users at specific points in the sales cycle.
Here’s an example of how we do it at Flux Chargers. Like the charger? Use the code ALE to get 20% off.
Welcome emails are a common drip campaign that introduce new subscribers to your brand and keep them interested in your products.
Most consumers expect a welcome email when they sign up for a newsletter, so this is a great starting point if you’re new to drip email campaigns.
Cart abandonment sequences are another kind of drip campaign that targets users who added a product to their cart before leaving your site.
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3. Showcase User-Generated Content
Your own content should always be the focus of your email and social media campaigns, but user-generated content can contribute to audience engagement and make your brand more interesting.
More and more businesses are focusing on user-generated content (UGC) across all marketing channels.
User-generated content includes a wide variety of content forms depending on your brand’s strategies.
Some marketers gather user responses in giveaways or contests while others simply publish high-quality content as they receive it.
Your approach should be based on what you expect your audience to engage with.
Posting at least some user-generated content adds more diversity to your feed and shows readers that you’re interested in interacting with your audience.
Like word of mouth, user-generated content is essentially free marketing for your brand. This shouldn’t be a one-time thing—user-generated content should be part of your ongoing email and social media strategies.
Authority Daily does this really well by showcasing some of the best reactions to their posts via their email campaign.
4. Collect Email Addresses via Social Media
Just as you can gain social media followers through email, you can also add to your email list by finding new contacts on social media.
It’s easy to lead social media users directly to your email newsletter and add a reliable new source of leads to your email capture tactics.
Twitter, for example, offers a lead generation card that’s designed to streamline the email capture process for Twitter users.
Rather than simply tweeting a link to your site, you can give followers the option to sign up for your email list without leaving Twitter.
Lead generation cards include a headline along with a short description of your newsletter and a call to action that leads to your newsletter.
Many brands combine these cards with a lead magnet to increase their sign-up rate—lead magnets are a relatively affordable way to grow your email list.
Facebook’s call to action feature on their Lead Form ads, directs users to a dedicated landing page instead of allowing them to sign up on Facebook.
You can choose the button and site URL along with an optional alternative URL for users on mobile devices.
By pinning a lead generation card to your Twitter profile or including a call to action on your Facebook page, you can make your newsletter the first thing social media users see when they visit your page.
This should lead to a consistent stream of new leads, especially if you already have a strong social media presence.
5. Create A Private Facebook Group
Exclusive content is one of the most commonly used lead magnets, and it’s a great way to give back to your most loyal customers. Private Facebook groups are an innovative strategy for lead generation that connects your email and social media audiences.
As with any lead magnet, the most important element of this strategy is ensuring that the group provides a unique value that users couldn’t get anywhere else.
It won’t be a good incentive if it ends up providing the same information that’s publicly available on Facebook.
With that in mind, you need to invest in a consistent stream of high-quality content if you’re serious about creating a great Facebook group.
It’s often difficult to strike the right balance between adding new users and maintaining the exclusivity that makes it a worthwhile opportunity.
A truly unique private Facebook group is an invaluable resource, and it can be one of the most effective lead magnets in nearly any field.
You can even ask for more in exchange for admittance to the group—instead of simply requiring users to sign up for your email newsletter, for example, you could have them share your brand on social media or refer new leads to your contact list.
It’s critical to create a group that responds to common user questions or concerns in a helpful and informative way.
Identifying the best strategies for a private Facebook group is all about understanding the unique needs of your customer personae. You can also gather customer feedback to learn more about their experience and how you can help.
One of my favorite FB marketing groups is Stacking Growth btw.
6. Make a Messenger Bot
A FB messenger list might be one of the best email lists out there right now.
With over 80%+ open rate, it destroys the ~10% open rates of emails.
The power of the bot not only comes from the high engagement but the ability for your customers to communicate with your business in an automated way.
You can create sequences that answer the most common questions such as your business hours, location, product specs, or even route people to the specific FAQ or Docs page.
Also, you can blast discounts and promotions to everyone who signed up for your Messenger list.
You can build a bot using ManyChat.
7. Use CRM to keep it all organized!
Its obvious that to combine email and social media, you will have to go back and forth these forums alot. The best way to ensure you have it all together is by the use of a CRM software. It will help you combine social media and email by keeping all your data on a single platform. Through this, you will also get access to featurs like automatic email integration which will enble you to capture your outbound and inbound emails automatically so you can keep tracking your leads timely.
Wrapping up!
Email and social media were once two completely separate platforms, but forward-thinking marketers are now looking for innovative ways to combine their strengths.
These are just a few of the most effective tactics for connecting your email and social media campaigns to maximize traffic, subscriptions, and sales.
How do you use the power of both in your business? Let me know in the comments (I’ll check out your site!)
If you enjoyed this, read:
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