The fact that SMM should go hand in hand with email marketing is well known, we won’t waste time talking about it. So the first thing to begin with is adding social media buttons in email. In our system there is a separate section with standard Social media blocks with calls like “follow us”, “join us” etc. Blocks are added in a few clicks... and creative ideas often end here.
Yes, the buttons should be applied but have you ever tracked their click rate inspired by these items after email campaign? Even with databases with over one million clients we can face the following results when these icons are added to a header:
What do you think, what is the reason of such behavior?
(2 minutes to think and then read on)
3 ways to boost the social media click rate of the newsletters
It can be attributed to the fact that sale offers in email newsletters are really catchy, so no one clicks the socials. But the answer is more prosaic: you need to make buttons not as a "default" template element but really focus on them to provide effective email and social media integration..
1. “Open” the block
For example, look at this socials block in an online cosmetics store newsletter above the footer:
Client may have accounts in all the available socials! He is unlike to methodically click icon after icon - then subscribe to group - return back to the email and start all over again. Look at this block click rate after newsletter
The block reminds that there are more channels to communicate with you, ...and its mission is over.
We removed all the social buttons in email and mentioned Instagram only:
As a result: 332 clicks, 40 new subscribers.
In the next newsletter, Instagram was replaced by Vkontakte group link
Result: 130 clicks through
If you are active in communities - share this information in your emails. Just one sentence: "Join us for more contests" - is not enough, you need to tell all the details about conditions, awards etc.
Social media and email: an example how it was implemented by Esprit
2. Discussions, feedbacks
The principle "What will people say?" is exciting both offline and online. Website comments rule - but our goal is communities where we can also discuss the most vital topics and communicate in real time. Make a screenshot of the best comments, even if not positive - they prove once again that feedback is real.
Add a Call To Action - button below - click social link to see everything or leave the comment.
The second way is to add the most discussed articles with highest number of likes. For example, Esprit's email
3. YouTube is a social media too
Moreover, it’s one of the most powerful social in newsletter. Enhance your offers with video reviews. Tell your client that you run a constantly updated live channel where he or she may find a lot of useful information.
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Consider where the links take your clients to. If your goal is to make more people subscribe to - take them right to the channel where the "Subscribe to our channel" call is waiting for them
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Make the frame clear and at the same time exciting. Something that hints ”it’s a video here!” and it will intrigue the recipient much better than screensaver: it may be animated arrow, face, action, “Play” button etc.
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If you are using GIFs - remember that some email clients display only the first shot but not the whole animation, so choose the most interesting shot as the opening image.
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Enhance screenshot with buttons, catchy description, social media proofs, like : "our video has been watched so far by ... subscribers". But number should be really impressive, not “5 persons”.
Start the special social media email campaign! Create the single social media invite emails in your welcome sequence. As long as a client is loyal, social media emails are good chance to motivate him or her to join your community. Then, it will be enough to “update” every following promo newsletter with one more "opened!" social.
P.S. To make the readers loyal as long as possible - regularly please them with new useful content and track the results of all your activities. You may not always have enough time to create, proofread and publish fresh stuff - so choose some useful tools to work with social media. This way you can expand the audience outreach and devote more time to analytics.
See you! ;)