There was a time when email marketing was considered to be an obsolete method of marketing and social media was the shiny new toy in the marketing world.  But it soon regained its prominence as marketers realized its lasting relevance, and the opportunity to combine email marketing with other strategies.

But this doesn’t mean you should put in all your marketing efforts into your email campaigns and completely write off social media. It’s true that email marketing and social media marketing are two completely different facets of your marketing strategy and don’t have a lot in common; their goals, tactics, and approaches serve different purposes in marketing your ecommerce business.

Comparing their results can also be difficult and may not serve any purpose for business growth.  For example, if we compare the ROI of the two platforms:

• Email marketing has an average ROI of 4400% which means a return of $44 for every dollar spent.
• With social media, it’s difficult to reach a specific ROI, especially when algorithm changes limit the organic reach of posts to just 6% of your audience. Still, social media marketing can be very beneficial to your marketing strategy.

But, while social media helps you better engage with your audience, email helps drive traffic to your website and convert prospects into customers. At the end of the day, social media and email marketing are incredibly distinct, and contrast in many  ways, but when used together can increase your marketing power more than either strategy alone!

1. Use Social Media User-Generated-Content (UGC) In Emails To Build Your Brand

Go beyond traditional creative with UGC. This includes images, videos, reviews and other media shared on social channels or uploaded directly by the user. UGC has turned out to be extremely valuable in conversion strategies for ecommerce sellers, as it is:

• Trusted: Word-of-mouth, marketing from one customer to another has always been the strongest way for building trust in a brand. In this internet age, UGC can be regarded as a digital form of word-of-mouth, reaching more people with the ubiquity of social media networks. Word-of-mouth marketing generates twice the sales of paid advertising, and UGC is 50% more trusted than other forms of media.
• Influential:  Engaging people is one thing, but converting them is the ultimate goal of marketing campaigns. Buyers rely so heavily on other customers’ experiences with a product or services, and UGC results in 29% higher web conversions than campaigns without it.
• Memorable: Studies have concluded that content featuring visuals tend to get 94% higher views, and the ads containing UGC tend to be 35% more memorable than any other branded content.
• Scalable: With a plethora of UGC available on multiple social media platforms each new day, your brand should be able to find fresh content in sync with market trends to incorporate into your email and social strategies.

While collecting UGC to reshare on your brand’s social media channels is a great start to an authentic and effective marketing strategy there are also several ways it can be utilized directly in your email campaigns to further its reach.

2. Run a Social Media Contest Through Emails

One of the easiest ways to harness the power of UGC through email is by using branded hashtags to promote a social media contest. Creating a hashtag for your brand connects you directly with your followers and motivates them to get engaged with your brand. This tactic also gets your customers excited to be featured on your website or social pages, and celebrates your brand community, incentivizing future purchases.

3. Integrate Customer Images and Reviews

Your customers are your best way to advertise. Piggyback on the UGC collected in hashtag campaigns and use it for further advertisements online and in emails. Such promotion will not just serve as an advertisement for your products but also enrich your social feeds.

Include reviews in the campaigns to make the prospects aware of the quality and popularity of your products.

4. Merge Social Media and Email Content

Designing the creatives can be tricky and time consuming, so why waste your time on it when users have given you plenty of content featuring your product or service in action? It’s unique, personalized, and often more attractive! One of the most popular methods of sharing offers through email marketing campaigns is integrating UGC with email content.

5. Convert Social Media Followers Into Loyal Subscribers

One may feel that there is no point in making social media followers email subscribers as well, since you are already reaching them through one platform. But you may be missing out on opportunities here. For example, there are times when your offers may be promoted through emails only and you may miss out conversions. Avoid squandering your email list by not reaching out to your social media followers.

6. Embed a Sign-up Form on Facebook

Facebook provides a massive audience that cannot be ignored, but a mere presence on the channel isn’t enough to effectively monetize your marketing activities. A quality list of subscribers can be built by tapping intoFacebook fan pages.Make your pitch clear. For example, you may have special offers for the next 100 subscribers, or an email marketing newsletter with exclusive content and offers. This can be done using an HTML app; you can design your sign-up form and locate it in place you think is best on your page.

7. Use a Facebook CTA (Call to Action) Button

Facebook offers a CTA button which is easily customizable according to the needs of the user. For building your email list, “Sign up” should be your primary choice, otherwise a more suitable CTA can be selected from the drop-down list. Just visit your page and click the “Create Call-to-Action” button. Choose a suitable choice from the drop-down and add an URL to your form from your website. Voila!

8. Using Twitter Cards

Twitter Cards are a special platform for promotions. When a user clicks on a Twitter card to expand it, he or she sees your offer and the call to action. Another click allows them to sign them up, and Twitter sends their contact information to you, which is then accessible via Twitter Ads.

9. Use Your Instagram Bio

Instagram typically drives a majority of brand traffic, especially for ecommerce retailers. This image-based social media platform allows you to put links in your bio. So, the best way to increase your email subscription/promote newsletter is to prepare a dedicated Instagram post or story and refer users to your bio. This can help you present your offer using visual assets and it can also be used to grow your subscriber list.

10. Join LinkedIn Groups And Message LinkedIn Contacts

Contact specific individuals through messages to form a deeper relationship with them, and suggest joining your email list. Join relevant groups and be an active user, providing links and sharing the benefits of signing up.

‍About the Author: Hi, I am Bharti, a content writer currently working at Clearout &ClearoutPhone. These are Saas products used for email verification and phone validation respectively. Reading & writing had always been a part of me though I never thought it would end up to be my profession too. Together with writing, I have been involved in creating vlogs and demo videos. Improvement in progress for each of them.