Social Media and Email Marketing: Why You Don’t Need to Sacrifice One for the Other.

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Many brands make the mistake of dropping off the face of the earth with one form of marketing when they decide to try something else. Social Media, a new fad in the marketing world that’s been alive and well on the Internet and in Editorial for ages, has become the poster boy commercial killer. The print ad killer. The email campaign killer. But used effectively, the content and response you garner through social platforms can compliment and an email marketing campaign- and vice versa.

Make all routes accessible. What’s the use of having either an email newsletter or social networking profiles if nobody knows about them? Go ahead and slap an icon and a link in your newsletter to let everyone know you’re now knee-deep in the Twitter or Facebook worlds. And don’t stop there. Place a newsletter sign-up on your Facebook page or community and link to it through Twitter.

Promote more than just the profiles. If you’ve got an exceptionally stunning custom Facebook tab that highlights a contest or ecommerce initiative, feel free to announce that in your email campaign. Running a community photo search? Let your friends and fans know through their inbox. If your social media site is the facilitator, think of your email campaign as the roads that lead consumers there.

Your fans are more than just a number. In the old business world (and some still stogy areas of that sector) a consumer equaled a number- how much they bought. Today, in some social media circles, the consumer is once again a number; this time they’re a number equaling how many fans/followers you have. Stop thinking of your fans as a number and start looking at all of the great testimonies they provide. All of that user-generated content has a place in your newsletter, whether as a review, a photo, or simply a quote. Your fans are your brand.

Get creative with your newsletter handouts. If you’re packing more interest in your social media sites than your email distribution list, it might be a good idea to tease your fans. Create a sample of what they can find in your newsletter with a simple white sheet download, or a blog post featured in your streams. It can be hard to pull people away from where they already are unless they see the value, so show them what they’re missing and make sign-up a cinch from that point.

Integrate your social activities with your personal ones. We read emails and social media streams inherently different. These streams are moving, living, and constantly fluctuating items that revolve and change in the blink of an eye. Emails can sit in our inbox for hours, days, and still look exactly the same as when they were sent. To liven that up a little, bring some of your social activities into your personal email reading time. Why not add the infamous Facebook badge box or Facebook Connect items to your newsletter posts? This allows seamless integration between the Facebook world and the email world. Or, with simple HTML you can include a stream of Twitter search results or lists right into your newsletter for that up-to-the-minute feeling.

And for all those social guru’s who claim that Facebook is slaughtering email? Until we implant chips in our brains, email will always be the fastest way to reach the web knowledgeable. And according to an Emarketer survey, social platforms extend the reach of email content to new markets. Arm yourself with your entire toolbox, and your reach will spread as far as possible.

photo via flickr.