5 Tips to Sync Social with Email

More and more social marketers are beginning to realize the power of email lists. Email marketers, too, have started feeling that they can no longer ignore social media. Even so, there are still very few strategies that work equally well on both platforms. It is a well-known fact that content that goes viral on social media does not always attract your hardcore email subscribers.

Both social and email have the potential to bring visitors to your website. That means by syncing them you can reap maximum benefits. But how?

Here are five insights that will change the way you look at social and email:

Social isn't for your loyal followers

If you want social and email to work together, you need to realize that these two platforms are very different and are intended for different kinds of audience. Many marketers believe that social media has the power to retain your audience. That may be true to some extent, but email is even better at retaining your audience.

Your email newsletters may reach up to 30% of your subscribers. However, your Facebook posts are unlikely to reach more than 16% of your fans. The average CTR for a tweet is 1.64%, whereas the average CTR for an email is around 3.5%. There are several reasons for this. Facebook organizes messages algorithmically and the newest messages need not necessarily appear on top. Twitter, on the other hand, is so cluttered that very few people will manage to see all the messages they receive. Emails are arranged by their date and it is customary for the user to delete messages they do not want. That means they will at least read the subject line. This improves visibility. Social networks do not impose any such restrictions.

The need for bite-size content

Social networks are the place to post pieces of bite-size visual content that is funny, interesting, inspiring, and cute all at once. If you can post these kinds of stuff, you will keep your audience engaged. But if you are trying to sell a product, a casual bunch of social followers sharing and liking your bite-size inspirational quotes are unlikely to help. That is where your email list comes in handy. Your email subscribers are far more likely to buy your products than your social followers. Therefore, you will want to encourage your social followers to become your email subscribers. This will not be possible if you do not treat your website / blog and social accounts as separate entities.

Attract your social followers to your site

While sharing images on social networks, don't forget to post links to the posts on your blog. This is a great way to attract your social followers to your site. You should also consider having two types of content: posts for your avid followers and posts for your social followers. People who arrive on your site following a link on a social network will expect similar content on your site. In most cases, they are expecting visual content. This makes it necessary for you to have this type of content on the site.

Getting your social followers to subscribe to your email list

Don't expect people to give you their email address for nothing. You should give them something valuable in return. One way of doing this is to offer your subscribers valuable ebooks or free online courses. Your email subscription box should be placed in the header or towards the end of your posts. As far as possible, avoid pop-ups. You should test different placements to see what works best.

Your email list can help grow your social following

Include social buttons in emails to improve click through rates. You should also have social sharing buttons on your site. You may also ask your social audience to share the posts if they like it. Embed your social media posts into your blog posts. This will increase your sharability. These embeds will give your blog a visual feel and make it popular with your social followers.

Conclusion

You cannot sync social and email unless you realize that they serve different purposes. Your social followers merely want to keep themselves entertained. They are interested in bite-size content. Your email subscribers need more in-depth content.