Email Marketing Teams Up With Social Media!

Some cynics are already claiming that social media was ‘last year’ and will be soon discarded by this year’s new fad gadgets. All the signs are that social network channels are here to stay and businesses will have to come to terms with the changing web!

In fact, the new gadgets and software tools are geared up to take social media to new levels of communication and feedback. With the launch of Google phone, Nexus 1 and shortly, GoogleWave – the longed-for shot in the arm for boosting email conversations into the 21st century – and a great new opportunity for business to transform their email marketing approach with prospective customers.

The problem has been that with over 80% of emails being sent out designated as ‘spam’, the response has been the building of ever more efficient firewalls so that by 2009, maybe only 20% -or less- of genuine ‘marketing’ emails were being read.

It has been obvious for a long time that a new approach was required. It simply has not been useful to retreat into arguments about ‘sticking with email’ Vs ‘social media networking’. They are both effective communication channels and the real challenge is to innovate marketing strategies so they can work together!

In other words, the attitude towards your online marketing voice has to change. On social sites, you need to modify what you should now be saying and more importantly, you should be listening back.

The starting point of all potential customer relationships is meaningful exchange. Whether this occurs via Twitter, Facebook, email, telephone or face-to-face conversations.

In 2010, the ‘cool rider’, social media, will be teaming up in the saddle with our trusty email ‘workhorse’ to drive campaign rodeos of genuine ‘engaging’ content. If the content of the email is interesting enough to stand by itself, then its articles, videos, promotions, pictures and competitions – which point back to your website via keyword backlinks – are most likely going to exist on the appropriate social websites as well, e.g. YouTube for videos, photos on Flickr, and written content on your website blog, Facebook, and article directories.

Social media should now really be the launching pad for far reaching viral email campaigns. Compelling tweets will instantly get retweeted, or shared via Facebook.

In 2010, it will be your readers – and regular customer base – who will be initiating the content sharing via social networks rather than the sender. Their interactive engagement by instantly hitting the “Share to Facebook” and “Share to Twitter” buttons are destined to be critical aspects of the new generation of business email campaigns, just as they have become standard procedure on social site blogs.

SMEs and other organistions will suddenly see how email marketing and social marketing can team up to productively grow their online business.