Welcome to our new look The Business of Email - with every issue we'll provide you with actionable ideas, how-tos and case studies to help you get the most out of your email marketing and communications.
Put email at the centre of your social media strategy by denise cox
1. Share your social networks in your newsletter
Promote your company’s social networks in your newsletter. Do this by creating an email newsletter template with embedded icons which will automatically be featured every time you send your newsletter to subscribers. To see an example of this, check out our social networking links at the bottom left hand corner of this email.
Don’t forget to post a link to the newsletter on your company’s social networks - you can do this at the same time as sending.Want to learn how to do this?
Now that you have ‘splashed’ the content of your newsletter to inboxes and social networks everywhere, get maximum value from the content by ‘dripping’ individual articles, ie sharing the URLs to individual articles on your social networks before you send your next newsletter. Newsweaver’s microsite with its multipages allows you to share these specific URLs to articles.
2. Let readers share your newsletter on their social networks
You’ve promoted your newsletter on your company’s social networks; now let your readers promote it on their social networks. Embed sharing tools in your newsletter so readers can share specific articles on their own social networks. A side benefit to this is that it provides another metric in the measurement of activity available to you. To see an example of this, check out the “Share” feature we’ve added to the bottom of this article.
Don’t forget to include the 'Forward to a Friend' feature. This is the original social generator and it’s still around for a reason. Even if people use their own email software, rather than the newsletter 'Share' feature, it reminds readers that the newsletter is absolutely and unequivocally available for sharing.
3. Beyond the inbox – attracting new subscribers
You’ve now reached far beyond the inbox which gives you the chance to reach new readers who’ve come across your company via social networks. Make sure you have a subscribe box built into your newsletter to help you convert these new readers into subscribers.
Reap the benefits of all this sharing. Make sure you have a good opt-in form so people can sign up to your newsletter. Feature it on your website, your newsletter and on your social networks.
