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An Email Is Worth 1,000 Tweets

Remember when we all started tacking little F's and T's onto our emails to convert our customers into social media followers? Remember how smart and COOL we felt? The thinking was/is: 1. Leverage our existing email list to grow our social media presence. 2. Pat self on back.

How quickly things change. Today, social media is no longer an add-on -- it's becoming the main course. Yes, we STILL LOVE our Fs and Ts -- and a host of other chicklets at the bottom of our emails -- but today, a lot of your social media followers don't subscribe to your email. They may not even KNOW about it. That's just sad. (But very fixable.)

In a recent Marketing Sherpa survey, customers themselves admit that the best way for brands to communicate with them is through email. As the old adage goes, the customer is always right. Bottom line -- you need to start converting followers to subscribers. They want it, you want it. But it's up to you to make that happen. Let's look at the Hows and Whys:

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HOW:

  • Sell your email just like you'd sell your product or service. "Sign up for our newsletter," -- come on, you can do better than that. Give it a catchy name.
  • Tweet about it constantly. Offer email-only promotions. Promise deal alerts, valuable info, and deeper insight into the brand they love ... and then create an email that actually pays off the promise.
  • TEASE followers with excerpts or headlines from a recent or upcoming email, and make it sizzle. Don't forget to provide a link to your email signup page.
  • Make it easy for customers to opt in. Add your signup form EVERYWHERE. Your Facebook page, blog page, on the header of your Web site. ESPs provide these ready-to-go chunks of code and they LIVE for helping you install sign-up forms in all manner of places. They benefit from your list growing, too.
  • Make your signup forms simple -- ask ONLY for the info that is absolutely necessary, and don't forget to add a splash of personality and warmth to entice signups.

WHY:

  • Email at its best can be lovely, targeted, exclusive and insider-y. Something your customers can cozy up to. You're free to pack it with humanity, humor, valuable info and special deals. There are no character limits, so you can let your voice b-r-e-a-t-h-e. There's a completeness and exclusivity, visually and verbally, that you can't get with social media. A well-crafted email can strengthen a relationship and stimulate direct sales/traffic BETTER than a thousand tweets.
  • Email works. Social media is beautiful for conversations and quick little bites. There's a great viral component with Like buttons and sharing. But email means more direct sales. Segmented mailing lists can hone in with specific offers that people find compelling.
  • The inbox is a holy place. Customers care about email -- they have a priority A-list, usually made up of family, friends and co-workers, and they read these emails 100% of the time. Your customer actually READS emails from friends and families constantly, while thousands of tweets and Facebook entries wash over them unread. To get on that holy, email A-list, you have to sound more like family and friends, and less like corporate spam. But once you're in, it's a fantastic place to be.
  • The bottom line: YOU want your customers to get your emails. More importantly, THEY want it, too, so complete the loop -- ask well, ask often and make signup forms readily available. There is awesome symbiosis when your customers follow you socially AND get your emails. DO continue to socially integrate your emails. But DON'T forget to email-integrate your social audience!
1 comment about "An Email Is Worth 1,000 Tweets".
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  1. Laura Lavernia from Riverside Avondale Preservation, October 5, 2011 at 3:23 p.m.

    Any suggestions for integrating Mad Mimi sign up form to Facebook--other than posting the link to our sign up form on website? I thought the opt-in feature for FB was gone...

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