Posting random blurbs on social media or sending out batches of mass email and then going on with your life might be fast and easy, but it’s not the most effective way to get noticed, regardless if it has anything to do with brand or business. You can instead get your company noticed on a positive note with five methods that can work wonders with email marketing and social media.
Figure Out What You Want to Do
Hopping on the social media and email marketing bandwagon works best if you know what the heck you intend to do there. Defining your business objectives for the tools is the only way you’ll know if the tools are meeting your objectives and serving your needs. Online marketing guru Sean Clark says your objective should be measurable and you need to compare the current and future measurements to see if your online marketing is working. Let’s say you want to increase sales, for instance. Check your current sales prior to your campaign and then again after six weeks or so. The numbers will tell the tale.
Decide Where You Want to Do It
Social media platforms are best for generating interest and starting discussions, notes Business2Community.com. Email’s goal is to create a deeper interaction. Mass email can contain video, photos, and text, Clark points out different social media platforms have specific modes of communication that work most effectively. Facebook is good with polls, photos and videos. Linkedin generally thrives with discussions, articles and advice. Content sharing can rock on Twitter while Pinterest’s claim to fame is pictures and other images. Clark notes you’ll need to set up a blog as the mother ship, so to speak, where you post the items you intend to share.
Get Personal
Getting personal means knowing your audience. Personalizing mass email is a must, and you can do it with email marketing software that includes a person’s name and other information in the message. Email marketing software may also be helpful for scheduling and content creation. Learn more about your audience by creating a persona, or what Clark calls it an outline. It answers such questions as who they are, what irks them and what they value, according to the Inbound Internet Marketing Blog.
Give Them Good Content
Good content adds value to your audience’s online experience while it works to meet your objectives. Creating your own content is one way to go about it, while curating other people’s content is another. Clark suggests using both methods for the biggest bang. Creating your own content gives you the freedom of aligning your content with your overall marketing plan. Content curation helps build your authority and makes you part of the community, since you are sharing the work of others. Develop a plan of what you intend to produce and curate and when you intend to share it.
Interact!
Interacting with your audience comes with multiple benefits. You can take a cue from French auto supplier Faurecia, which instead choose to interact with its audience through a Pinterest contest, Xconomy.com reports. People are invited to pin an image on the contest board explaining how the image can be used as inspiration for a vehicle’s design. Faurecia’s contest gets people excited about its products and lets the company gauge what people want from modern vehicle design.
These five tips can help you achieve success while creating a community of loyal clients. Better yet, your needs and theirs will both be met.
Guest Post Authored By: Ashley Ford Ashley and her husband run a diner in Georgia. She writes several blogs about the restaurant and hospitality management business.