The rapid rise of social media over the last several years has given marketers a new tool for consumer engagement. Social media has become so prevalent that at some point marketers even believed that email marketing would fall behind it. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn offered a new way of communicating with buyers, giving marketers the ability to tap into the ways consumers shop and how they make purchase decisions.
But, instead of leaving email behind, top performing marketers realised that social media and email marketing were, in reality, complementary. Email marketing enabled marketers to craft email messages, and social media enabled audiences to share the contents that were in the emails. This challenged leading companies to create a different kind of marketing approach – one that would embed more social media sharing capabilities into the email marketing mix.
A global survey of social networking users found that 46 percent of respondents frequently shared online content. This means that if we give audiences the opportunity to share our content, they might just do so. By placing a social sharing button in our emails, our audiences can take advantage of sharing engaging content with their social peers.
What is social reporting and where does it fall into place?
Social media reporting means making smart choices about the kind of tools and metrics to select when implementing a social media/email marketing strategy. By tracking key performance metrics from each channel, we are able to optimise our email marketing efforts, and when we know which elements are working and which ones aren’t, it becomes possible to duplicate more of what’s bringing in positive results.
Choosing the right social media reporting platform helps us isolate specific metrics. Things like how many times the “follow us” button or “refer to a friend” button was clicked on in the body of the email. These kinds of metrics can all be tracked. The more innovative we become about incorporating social media elements into our emails, the more successful we will be at reaching a broader customer base.
Key takeaway
Companies that report on their social media efforts have a better understanding of how to incorporate email marketing with social media. According to Merkle, 42% of social media users are checking their inboxes at least 4 times a day compared to 24% of non social media users. This means that we have to ensure that we have a sound strategy when it comes to email marketing and social media.
How effective is your email marketing strategy? Are you incorporating social media capabilities into your emails to reach a broader social media audience?