Email marketing is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools when it comes to digital marketing tactics, and this fact is not likely to change any time soon.
Email became the king of marketing by being able to generate an ROI of 3800% and lead prospects down the sales funnel in an easy, seamless way, as if gently nudging readers and subscribers to take desired actions.
But I’ll need to point something out here: email marketing on its own is no longer able to convert as well as it used to. Why is that? Because another very strong digital playground has emerged for marketers to take into account: social media marketing. While also cost-effective, social media can be a powerful tool to reach many marketing goals, for example, build brand awareness.
The graph above is a clear indicator of that large groups of consumers will follow brands on social media in order to get coupons and discounts – an incentive traditionally delivered in newsletters. But if that is the case, is email marketing dying?
The answer is no, but in order to keep your customers happy, you should use email and social media marketing together. In this article, I will discuss practical ways of doing so, focusing on two highly effective tactics: using powerful, relevant CTAs in the copy of your newsletters and including links to your brand’s social media profiles in emails.
Craft powerful calls to action
What is a CTA?
A call to action is exactly what the name suggests: a call for the reader to take specific action named by the author. In other words, CTAs are those little catchphrases, usually used at the end of emails or ads that give some instructions to the users and show them what the next step of their customer journey should be.
A good CTA will help the brand sell without overt selling – by telling the reader what can be done and helping them make the most out of the email’s content. We’re talking about a logical, even expected course of action like “Click here” or “Take me to the website”, which will bring the reader closer to your value proposition.
Sadly, as the statistic below indicates, CTAs are still a novelty for many businesses:
But how are you going to create a successful CTA that will help your followers on social media become subscribers or the other way around?
Get the benefits right
Your CTAs don’t need to be too many or too complicated and you don’t need to have one different version for each platform. On the contrary, too many CTAs could show a lack of consistency and confuse the user, who won’t give you a second thought.
And since less is more, make sure you know exactly what you’re offering as a benefit and how you can make your proposition work with a few simple words.
Here’s an example:
What’s the value? The free examples.
What’s the CTA? “Get them!”
Why does it work? Because it’s one simple phrase – nothing too intricate or complicated – and it shows the value up front, making sure that the prospect will do the one action that will bring the desired effect.
Take action
Passive words won’t fly in the CTA game. In fact, they are something that your prospects will overlook. You need to use words that push users to take action. And there is no better word than a verb in order to achieve this! But what is your email about?
Use “Get” for special offers, “Subscribe” for mailable coupons, “Follow” for social media and “Share” or “Refer a friend” for your referral marketing emails.
Referral marketing, in particular, is an effective trend and plenty of email marketing automation platforms like Moosend, a great MailChimp alternative, give you the opportunity to utilize sharing buttons like this:
Create a sense of urgency
Make sure to let your customers, followers, and subscribers know that your offers and benefits are constantly changing – you are, after all, a dynamic, exciting business.
In simple words, be clear about your exclusive offer being available for a limited time only.
This example above is, honestly, spot-on. We’ve got an email aiming to entice readers to join the brand on their social media platform (Facebook). The language used is simple, clear, and actionable (“Enter”, “Join us”) and has the timer all set and ready, clearly indicating that the chance to win won’t be forever. What more could you ask from an email that is aiming to trigger a specific behavior and grow brand awareness?
In order to make your CTAs even more effective, do some groundwork. Developing customer personas and using A/B tests to define their preferences are great ways to streamline your process and eliminate unnecessary mistakes.
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Use social media buttons
Let’s move on to the other practice that drives email subscribers to social media profiles: social media buttons. Why should you add them in your emails and why should they be a staple in your email marketing game?
Your follower count will grow
This is the main reason why many marketers add social media buttons to their email campaigns – and for a reason. After all, successful social profiles serve as social proof. The more followers and engagements, the more credible a brand is to newcomers to the profile. Skillfully managed social media make a brand come across as more accessible and, in some ways, “human”.
Which is a useful thing, when it comes to our second point:
You will be trusted
A brand that is active on social media is a brand that is inventive, aware of trends, and open to engaging with its customers and followers. And this is largely what today’s marketing is all about: trends and standing out from the crowd as well as always putting your customers first. If you don’t follow these basic principles, your conversion rates are sure to plummet.
What’s more, using social media links in your email marketing allows users to get to know your brand better. Social media are a more dynamic and casual environment than email and they are a great place to express your brand’s personality. Make it one that users will want to interact with to get more loyal followers, who will be more interested in opening your emails when received, down the line.
They’ll keep in touch
Let’s assume that you’re a touring musician and you’ve set up your website with news, updates, and a merch store – and you have a sizeable, healthy mailing list. Would you assume that those people will be constantly going on your website to check for news? Nah, that’s a long-gone practice.
Instead, they will go to your social media instead to get all the updates and, who knows, perhaps bump into some kind of discount, special contest, or new material.
Social media buttons and links on your email campaigns help you nurture that list that took you so long to create and always deliver relevant information, across relevant channels. Combine this practice with a CTA encouraging your subscribers to share your updates on social media and watch new fans showing up on your mailing list.
Takeaway
There are thousands of ways to combine social media marketing and email marketing, even though, surprisingly enough, some marketers are just starting to realize that. Instead of treating the two channels like competing areas of digital marketing, make sure that they’re on friendly grounds and that you can – and will – use them in unison. This is the only way you’ll speed up the process of reaching those KPIs you’ve dreamt of and give your brand’s growth a significant boost.
