5 Ways to Integrate Social Media into Email

These days, it seems everybody says "social media works better when combined with email."  OK, fantastic, jumping right in!  But, how do you do it?  At minimum, you can include a conspicuous "follow us" call out with links to your social sites.

If you want to go beyond the basics, here are five ways you can really beef up your email content, increase your email open and click-through rates, and ultimately grow your social community.

1. Include your recent tweets.
Including one or two of your most recent tweets is an excellent way to show people (in your email) the value you provide. By definition, tweets are short and to the point -- perfect for email content.  Did you publish an article that was re-tweeted 20 times?  Use that as a selling point in your email, such as "Our most re-tweeted article of the month!"

2. Feature your favorite mentions.
People love to be recognized and appreciated for their social media commentary. Email is an effective way to provide expsoure to a loyal customer who mentioned you on Twitter or Facebook. Be sure to include their Twitter handle (@AdmiralCompany, for example) or Facebook page link so others can find them -- and they will appreciate your more.

How many more customers might mention you at the prospect of some free publicity?

3. Reward a Facebook fan or Twitter follower at random.
Going beyond the freebie public "thank you" in # 2, you could select a random follower or fan for each email and reward them with a free gift, special discount offer, or company promotional item (t-shirt, coffee mug, etc).

Asking customers to "click here" to see the winner is an enticing and easy way to generate a click-through, engaging your subscribers.  If you make this a regular part of your email campaign, customers may look forward to receiving your emails to see if they've won.   

4. Include a teaser from your blog.
Do you have a blog with valuable content?  Are your an authority on certain topics or provide updates about industry news?  Do you highlight new products or services?

If so, include two or three sentences from a recent post and link to the full blog post. Including the title and a few opening comments might pique your customers' interest enough to click-through. Plus, once customers see the value of your blog they may return to the blog on their own, bookmark it, or share your posts with friends -- all helping your blog gain search engine visibility.

5. Link to a product use or other video.
Rather than embedding javascript in your email (rendering/performance issues), simply link to your video on YouTube or wherever your video is hosted. An effective way to link is by taking a screen capture of your video on YouTube and creating a Jpeg image, then inserting that image as a link in your email.  Also be sure to include a text link in case customers have difficulty viewing your email images.

For help integrating social media into your email marketing campaigs, Contact Us today! The Admiral Company specializes in Email Campaign Management.