Written on June 7th, 2011 by tasha
Cross-promoting is not a new concept in marketing. But many people have distinctly different teams, or mindsets, when handling their newsletter/e-newsletter and their social networking. While the communication styles, and in many cases the type of viewer within these communication channels, are quite distinct, you can easily expand your reach by promoting content in one medium to the audience in the other.
Here are 8 tips for integrating your campaigns:
- Include a “Join My Mailing List” app on your Facebook page. Research from Idealware indicates that increasing email subscriber lists was one of the more successful ventures on Facebook. By gathering an email address, you gain the ability to reach out more directly to your viewer. In many instances, because Facebook is so stream of consciousness, on any given day you have a greater chance of a casual social networker seeing your email than you do of their happening across your Facebook or Twitter post in their limited or infrequent social media visits.
- Post teasers of newsletter articles in your social media pages. You spent time developing those articles. Leverage your content. Facebook gives you 420 characters, Twitter 140. Post an intriguing update with a link to your e-newsletter page. (We set up all our clients with an e-newsletter PAGE rather than embedding their e-newsletter in an email message. Email newsletters have only a 2-3 day shelf life. A webpage newsletter that uses emails to announce a new issue will be up 24/7 all month long.)
- Send initial Fan invites to your email list. When you first set up your Facebook, Blog or Twitter account, it’s perfectly reasonable to send an email announcement to your subscribers with links inviting them to LIKE or follow you on your new social networking channel. You will want to describe the benefits, and how the channels will be different (e.g., a newsletter article may give educational information about a topic, but the blog may involve more personal commentary evaluating the issues. Facebook may be where you post polls and videos, or prompt conversations…)
- Include SHARE links on your email announcements. Constant Contact, the email service we use for our clients, includes the ability to add a bar of social media links across the top of each email announcement. This way, if an e-newsletter subscriber finds something of interest in the e-newsletter announcement, he/she can easily access social media and share it with friends.
- Include LIKE/Follow and general social media links on your website. Again, some people are primarily Facebook folk who stumble across websites. Others are Twit-o-philes. Encourage them to add you to the list of organizations they follow by adding buttons that take them directly to your social networking site. Make it convenient for people to use their medium of choice to spread the word about you. Putting a Facebook and/or Twitter bug on your pages removes the barriers and makes it just that much easier for people to log in to their own profiles and jot down a note about something you’ve said that inspires them.
- Continue a conversation on social media. Traditional websites and e-newsletters are generally a uni-directional communication medium. You as the publisher are sending info out to your viewers. What makes blogs, Facebook and Twitter special (i.e., Web 2.0) is that they are channels that allow for public conversation where you can make an initial post and then others can react to you (comment) and to each other. This social component is the strength of social networking. Consider adding a link in your e-newsletters (or even a line in your print newsletters) inviting viewers to engage in a further discussion on your Facebook page or blog. Ask a provocative question at the end of the article and then promote the jump with a link.
- Announce an up-coming article or event that will be taking place in the other medium. You can boost the number of e-newsletter subscribers if you have a juicey topic or contest/event you are planning to unveil in the next newsletter issue. Begin about a week before, adding social networking posts that “build buzz” and encourage people to subscribe so they can get the news right away. Conversely, if you are going to host something special on your Facebook, blog or YouTube channel, let your e-newsletter subscribers know that they may want to start following your social networking channel so they don’t miss out.
- “Mine” social media for new topics/feedback/concerns. Social networking is a great place to do market research. You can ask your followers directly what topics are of interest or concern to them. (This is called “crowdsourcing.”) You can also look at the kinds of comments and questions that are being asked by your followers, or the topics that seem to generate the most activity. Feel free to surf other social media pages, especially of allied businesses (or your competitors) to see what the hot topics are. If those organizations share your same audience (e.g., family caregivers, Boomers) then you have an incredible opportunity to examine what seems to be “up” with the people you are trying to reach.
What have you found to be successful in terms of cross-marketing?
Posted in E-newsletters, Facebook, GCM Marketing, Home Health Marketing, Hospice Marketing, Internet Marketing, Private Duty Marketing, Social Networking
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