Email and Social Media: Why Marketers Need Both

Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing

Why social media marketers should focus on email marketing

DJ tells a story of when he heard Jeff Pulver talk about his famous quote, “You live and die by your database.” DJ explains how it’s a phrase that he probably says at least once a week. The reason it’s so important is because when it comes to marketing, email is your database.

You have a virtual database of social media followers, but your database is your email contacts. Email is the glue that binds everything together.

Email is your database. Image source: iStockphoto

DJ doesn’t discount social media, and he uses it a lot. But he explains that if Facebook decided to change their terms of service, then the connection with your friends and followers could disappear. Email addresses stick with you.

With Facebook, there are over 100 different email notifications. Even if you turn off most of the notifications, Facebook still messages you through email and Twitter does the same.

You’ll discover how all social networks use email marketing.

Listen to the show to find out why DJ encourages people to log out of Facebook or Twitter and go back to these sites for the first time.

Why social media marketers should work email into their social media activities

DJ explains how he has heard “social media folks” talking more about email.

You’ll hear examples of how Chris Brogan and Amy Porterfield focus on how to grow their email lists.

You can take the loyal followers you have on social networks and bring them over to your email list. You’ll find out the advantages of bringing your social media connections over to your email list and why it’s easier to sell via the email channel versus the social channel.

Listen to the show to find out how at Social Media Examiner, we have about 500 new people every day come to our content.

Where email is heading in the future

DJ shares how a lot happens with email behind the scenes that the average person doesn’t necessarily see.

There has been innovation around filters impacting email deliverability. From a consumer standpoint, there is a new app called Mailbox that helps you manage all of your marketing messages in one place.

Mailbox is an app that lets you put your email in one place.

DJ has started to see a lot more integration of email into social and can see it play out in a couple of different ways.

One of his favorite plugins for Chrome and Gmail is Rapportive. It sits on the side of Gmail and as you hover over somebody’s email address, if that email address is used publicly to tie to different social networks, it will pull in all that information.

You can use Rapportive to find out information about your contacts right inside your inbox.

You’ll hear an example of what information it will show about that person and how salespeople can use it.

DJ explains that the advantage of this plugin is that it shows a little bit more about where he sees email going. The lines are starting to blur between social networks and email marketing.

Listen to the show to hear stats from ExactTarget on the number of people who check their email on a daily basis and the number of people who prefer to get marketing-related messages through email.

Some ways marketers can grow their email lists using social media

DJ says there are many different ways for marketers to grow their email lists using social media.

At a very basic level, if you have a strong following on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, he believes it’s important to let your community know how they can get onto your list.

You’ll hear DJ give examples of social updates you could use to get people onto your list. DJ also reveals how Chris Brogan and Pat Flynn get people onto their lists with the use of video.

On Facebook, you can build a tab that has an opt-in form and a lot of email providers will make it easy for you to create the form directly in their system. You can then drop the code into a tab on Facebook. Although DJ has seen this work, he thinks the problem is that you still put a lot on the potential subscriber.

You’ll hear what DJ recommends if someone is following you and they’re engaged on Facebook.

Listen to the show to find out why DJ would rather have people on his blog than on Facebook.

How can email be used to move your blog readers to action for social campaigns?

DJ has tried lately to practice what he preaches. Now when you opt into his list, you’ll see automated messages as well as some more personal things.

DJ Waldow's opt-in form for the "Waldow Social Weekly" newsletter.

People forget that you have to build your list first, and then build trust with your audience and community. You can’t expect somebody who just opted into your list to do something for you. You have to earn that trust over time.

DJ believes that a combination of both email and social can be really effective, once you have built sufficient trust. One way DJ has seen this work is to create a call-to-action link within your email. You can easily take that call to action and put a link next to it that says “tweet this” or “post this on Facebook.” Prepopulate the tweet or Facebook post with the exact message you want it to say.

DJ gives an example of what he does in his newsletter and where and what your call to action should say.

Listen to the show to hear how at Social Media Examiner, we used our email list for the launch of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

Once someone opts into your email list, what is the appropriate frequency for contact?

DJ advises if you start to do anything that is less frequent than monthly, your audience is not going to remember who you are. He thinks daily is great if you can manage, but a couple of times a week is probably better.

You’ll discover what the sweet spot is for DJ and when he does a sales-type email.

Listen to the show to find out why the frequency question is one of DJ’s favorites.

DJ’s top tips on email marketing

DJ shares a great service that he uses called JA.TXT. It’s an SMS-to-email service, which provides you with a dedicated SMS number.

JA.TXT is a great SMS-to-email service.

You’ll discover how this is a great way to add email addresses to your list and why it’s really effective when you’re in front of an audience.

The second service that has been effective for DJ is LeadBrite. It’s a plugin for WordPress called Welcome Gate.

You’ll find out what happens when you’re a first-time visitor to DJ’s site and how Welcome Gate has helped him grow his list.

Listen to the show to learn why you should give visitors an opportunity to opt in right away.

Discovery of the Week

At Social Media Examiner, we have an awesome free service called the Networking Clubs.

We have made a significant investment in hiring one of the best developers on the planet to put together a social network that lives independently of all of the other social networks.

The Networking Clubs are a great place to connect with other social media marketers.

There are almost 12,000 social media marketers who belong to the Networking Clubs. With the click of a button, you can join using LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. It’s a place where you can lend a helping hand, connect with your peers and get help.

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