How is Social Media Influencing Email Marketing?

Posted in Email Marketing, Social Media by redembermarketing on May 10th, 2009

While there are still many companies that are still working on improving their email marketing processes let alone social media, those that have already augmented their approach with social media are quickly realizing that email still plays an important role.  Personally, I believe that email marketing will remain a relevant and important component of most organizations’ marketing strategies, but without a doubt, the influence of social media will be felt throughout most marketing teams.

Last week, MarketingProfs spoke with IBM’s Sandy Carter, who will be speaking at their upcoming MarketingProfs B2B Forum.  She rightly points out that “the use of Web 2.0 technology should be core to all integrated marketing going forward,” warning that isolating your social media team from the rest of your marketing staff could result in sub-standard results.  When asked about common misconceptions organizations have about social media, her first answer was that many companies believe that social media is a magical elixir, when it’s actually just a new (and important) component in the marketing tool box.  She suggests that we all keep in mind that our objective is to drive business, which can sometimes get lost when an organization or team becomes enamored with the tools themselves.  Amen, Sandy!

Without a doubt, social media is ideal for coordinating and executing public conversations with individuals you might otherwise have never had the chance to reach.  In some cases, like direct messages on Twitter, etc., it can even help facilitate private conversations. The pubic part of these dialogs represent a real pportunity to get your message or at least your perspective out into the open in what many are calling a more “trusted environment.”   Tracking how much each individual effort is impacting the bottom line, however, is another story.  Sandy herself admits that it’s hard to measure the value of the relationships that are formed online, but it doesn’t stop people from trying.  Some companies coordinate coupon codes that are targeted at specific social sites, others do their best to analyze traffic sources and purchasing influences.  According to Sandy, “IBM Research and MIT’s Sloan School of Management found that the average e-mail contact was worth $948 in revenue.”  They did so by tracking the influence of more than 2,600 IBM consultants’ email address books over the course of a year!

So we all know that social media provides a very efficient way to develop inbound traffic, but what companies do with that traffic is key.  Those that capitalize on their social media efforts find ways to continue the dialog with an audience that expects to be part of a conversation.  It’s important to note here that relevance has just become much more important, since mass marketed messages that have historically been the trademark of email marketing will no longer suffice.  Messages now must provide the personal or targeted conversation that audiences are coming to expect.

So what does that mean for email marketers?  Processes must be refined to accomodate more granular segmentation, triggered emails should be designed to efficiently and accurately respond to certain activities, and more specific nurturing campaigns should take historical behavior or prospect profile characteristics into consideration.  All of these steps are intended to increase the relevance and timeliness of your communications.

I think the amaboston.org social site itself is a good example. It’s a social site (albeit, semi-private) but email notifications play an important part in keeping members informed about what’s going on. In many cases, Myles is writing content to us that we’re likely to find highly relevant, and uses the site to promote the AMA chapter’s objectives, deliver value and ultimately increase membership.

Creating or participating in niche communities within larger public social media sites not only helps with SEO (as many SEO and social media advisors have rightly pointed out) but can also assist with outbound communications as well.  Social media is an opportunity for new prospects to learn your company’s style, perspective and (gasp) value proposition- yes, somewhere in between posts about your latest networking event and why your local Starbucks just doesn’t make ‘em like they used to, you can contribute some real content that’s directly tied to what your organization does.

Social media can actually make your email marketing activities much easier: your participation in a social site gives you the opportunity to discover (or create) new content that’s perfect for a campaign that continues, extends or introduces the conversation to someone that was previously unaware via email.  There is so much more relevant information made available by social media, that there are literally unlimited opportunities to create email marketing messages that deliver value, engage an audience and drive action, all through improved relevance.

I certainly don’t think email marketing is going away, but it’s likely to be held to a higher standard as social media continues to become more influential.