1. Integrating
email with
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing
social media

2. Why we should all be integrating email with social media
The social media networking phenomenon has proved itself a superb way to reach,
engage and foster relationships with your audience, be they customers, prospects or
other stakeholders. As part of the modern marketing mix, it’s here to stay, yet some
organisations are still slow to leverage it to their advantage.
Whether or not you participate in it, your customers – and more importantly your
competitors – will. So it’s essential, if you don’t want your brand to be written off as
tragically behind the times, to start taking social media marketing seriously.
Social media isn’t a replacement for traditional marketing techniques. Nor does it
guarantee quick success if you adopt it on the spot without a proper strategy. Done well, it
is a highly effective supplement to your existing marketing practices, an
accelerator of what you’re already doing. Planning is everything, so it’s best to start by
asking a few simple questions:
What am I aiming for? Lead generation? More customers? Increased brand
awareness? All of the above?
Who do I want to reach? Which demographics?
How do I reach them? Which social media channels are my audience using?
Always keep these sorts of questions in mind and remember that the technology isn’t
important in itself – it’s how you use it to achieve your goals that counts.
Let’s have a closer look at social media before we think about how it can be
integrated into your email marketing to generate optimal return.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

3. Social media – The mission of professional publishers has long been to share information among
a community of people with shared interests, which is precisely what social media
enables people to do. The line between readers and publishers has become blurred,
what’s it all with mass communication of information now in the hands of individuals and social
media present in all our interactions, both personal and professional.
about? The highly interactive new mediums over which individuals and businesses now
create, share and access content – which include internet forums, blogs,
microblogs, podcasts, video and social bookmarking, have changed the way
consumers interact, not just with each other, but with your business.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

4. Who’s using it?
Marketers should be spending time on the most
popular social networks. Facebook and YouTube lean
toward the personal/consumer side of things, while LinkedIn is
professional-oriented, Twitter, an extraordinarily flexible
microblogging social network, encompasses just about everything
in concise 140 character snippets.
Many blogs also have huge followings and interactive comments
sections where conversation flourishes.
The number of people using these sites is rising so rapidly that
?
statistics are outdated as soon as they’re put to paper.
(FROM LYRIS – THE DYNAMIC DUO: EMAIL MARKETING
AND SOCIAL MEDIA)
The percentage of adult internet users who use social
networking sites in each age group, as of May 2010
Age Group % Using Social Media
18 - 29 86%
30 - 49 61%
50 - 64 47%
65+ 26%
Source: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project,
April 29-May 30, 2010 Tracking Survey. N = 2,252 adults 18 and older.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

5. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
500 million users Awareness has grown 75 million users
from 5% in 2008 to 87%
in 2010
50% of users log on 51% of active users Members in 200
daily follow companies, countries
brands or products on
social networks
Average user A natural companion Members from all
connects to 80 mediun to other Fortune 500
community pages, channels, such as companies
groups and events. Facebook and TV
Source: Facebook Source: Social Media Source: LinkedIn
Today
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

6. Building brands:
You can enhance messaging, extend
reach and engage your target audience
deeper to increase the value of your
brand and customers’ loyalty to it
How can marketers use it?
Acquiring customers:
What better way then for businesses to establish, retain
At a much lower cost than list buying,
and advance brand reputation than to engage directly
with their target audiences? You can even have your social media can bring you opt-in names
customers do your marketing for you by mentioning for email campaigns, increase the
your product or service favourably over their own circulation of your content and deliver
networks. Again, it takes meticulous planning prospects for product sales and events. It
and strategy to ensure this opportunity also eliminates the problem of ‘dead time’ for
for word-of-mouth works in acquisition between sending mails.
your favour.
Advertising sales:
You can generate more impressions, click-throughs and sales
for your advertisers by raising your exposure on the different social media
channels. This allows you to assemble creative lead generation packages and
raise advertising revenue. The effectiveness of a campaign can be quantified
by the use of social media monitoring tools that show whether promotional
periods increase the level of conversation.
Retaining customers:
Social media allows a spiral of feedback that enables you to
constantly refine your content and products to provide more relevance and
value. The result is a level of engagement and emotional investment that
To rise above your competitors, you can’t afford to miss
would previously have been a greater drain on resources.
the opportunities social media provides: meeting customers
and prospects proactively; hearing about and addressing
their concerns; benefiting from their feedback; and Audience insights:
channeling social media’s viral Social media reduces the need for extensive market research by
power to increase your providing faster, cheaper access to your target audience’s opinions.
marketing reach,
relevance and
frequency.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

7. Trust is developed by listening to, engaging with and delivering value to
social media participants. Email’sa good tool for one-to-one
conversation, but social media opens up the floor to anyone and it’s
Email marketers, take note
important to find out what people are saying about your brand and where
conversations relevant to your market are taking place. You can devise
a successful communication and editorial strategy with the assistance of
an array of social media monitoring tools, some of which are absolutely
free.
Marketing speak will do you no favours. You most likely have a website
from which to deliver your hard sell message, and you can use social
media to drive traffic there, but only by providing smart insights and by
demonstrating thought leadership in your industry. In most social net-
works this is what is considered as adding value, not propaganda.
The ‘netiquette’ of social media is to be ignored at your peril. You’ve got to pay attention. The fast pace of social media can be hard to
keep up with if you have limited resources, but it’s important to show
customers that you’re not simply going through the motions and that you
Remember that content in social channels is driven by all participants, and the are keen to keep up to speed with the thoughts and concerns of your
email metrics like open rates, click-throughs, advertising sales and subscription audience. Address both positive and negative comments for the
renewals are not what you should be focusing on. purposes of both customer service and market research. People can
forgive mistakes far easier if you’re willing to respond to their frustrations.
Here are some crucial principles for email marketers to bear in mind if they want
to avoid the pitfalls of poorly thought out social campaigns:
Social media is people dealing with people. Although you have to uphold
a professional tone and take great care in what you say, social media is
a great opportunity for your company to benefit from a more personal
approach. This is more applicable to some industries than others, but a
Your customers’ and prospects’ needs come first. Your company’s good Facebook page and strong video content allows you to give your
value proposition means nothing if you can’t show how you’re able to serve your brand not just a voice, but a face.
audience’s needs. Unless there’s a visible benefit or relevant interest to them, why should
they care what you have to say?
Bearing all this in mind will help you to build an invaluable level
of trust that costs less and will produce faster results than
email alone.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

8. Social media, meet email
We’ve established that social media allows anyone with
content, a link or simply an opinion to join the conversations
relevant to them. This happens in real-time and it’s great for
human interaction and can benefit customer service hugely
if monitored properly, but on the other hand it’s fairly
transient. Tweeting is fleeting!
What you tweeted this morning could be pushed out of sight
by the time your audience checks out Twitter later in the day,
so the may well miss out on what you said. This is especially
true when you’re working across international time zones,
where one person’s morning is another person’s evening.
An email, while not tangible like a good old-fashioned letter,
does offer a more intimate level of contact. If someone has
opened an email from you you’ve got their attention and they
can return to it when they please. That content can live
forever, particularly if you archive your campaigns in web
page form. The better record you keep of strong content the
better your business credibility.
Social media is about engaging in conversations and
sharing content, but email marketing can raise these
potentially volatile interactions to a higher level of
engagement and give them serious weight.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

9. What can they
do for each
other?
Web and email marketing may now be considered old hat
and ineffective without a social media dimension to support
them. Not so long ago it was enough to simply have a website
for your company, but the rapid growth of the internet soon Without clear, level-headed
meant you had to remain credible in the marketplace. objectives, social media, like any
other marketing medium, could
The same thing is happening with email. become a serious drain on resources
and profits.
A purchased list of targeted email addresses used to be enough to
give you an edge over the competition, and it’s still very effective. A combination, however, of social media and
However, social media has raised the bar in terms of what customers email marketing can somewhat relieve the
expect from online interaction. Genuine engagement requires a little pain of these measurement issues. The
more than a personalised email message and a link to your product results achieved from both mediums will
or service. also be heightened by forging a solid
alliance between the two.
One of email’s greatest appeals is its measurability. Organisations reluc-
tant to embrace social media are often put off because, with its measur-
ability still in its infancy, it can be a challenge to decide just how much
time and effort to spend on it.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

10. Where
do Increase brand awareness
you Enhance search keywords and SEO
Expand customer service and loyalty
start?
Add names to your opt-in email lists
Sell subscriptions, books, reports and other products
Sell advertising
Encourage subscription renewals
Use current audience needs and trends to inform the
development of new products
A firm business objective is the starting point of any email
marketing campaign, so when you introduce social media
into the equation it’s imperative you determine if and how The important thing to remember is that the purpose of social
it’s going to help you meet your email marketing media isn’t to simply sell, sell and sell some more. It’s about talking
goals. These could be to: to your audience rather than at them.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

11. Look, listen, don’t stop
Any marketer knows the value of research. Each of
the major social networks provide demographics, so you
can discover what social mediums your customers participate
in and how they do so. You can also use a data provider to match
a sample of your customer base against the various social networks.
This will improve the value of your database and allow you to focus on the sites
most used by your target audience.
Social media is as much about listening as speaking, but in the world of
marketing, it takes more than a glass against the door to understand how your brand
is being discussed and what content is being shared on social networks.
You can gain such insights with free tools like Addictomatic and Samepoint or the
more sophisticated analyses of companies like Radian6 and Sentiment Metrics, who
examine tone, volume, share of voice and more.
What motivates people to share your content? Once you’ve determined the most
shared content, take a look at the common characteristics. Does it contain an
incentive, a call to action? Does it provide valuable, or exclusive information?
Your strategy for email and social media should include content that recipients are
motivated to share across their own networks.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

12. Integrating your email and social media marketing Ask subscribers for social media details. High level sign up
information should at least be the person’s email address and first
and last name, but they’ll be put off if they’re asked for much more
You shouldn’t be choosing between email marketing and social media, but than that for a newsletter subscription. What you can do is ask
doing everything you can to extend your audience and customer base. subscribers to update their details from within a ‘Subscriber
Social media allows you to engage customers in real-time conversation and Update’ page on your website. Here you can add fields that
draw them towards your website, where you can afford to talk about your expand the demographics and allow you to take social details.
business on your territory, after all. As long you provide valuable content, You can then follow those who give you their information and add
people will be encouraged to sign up for your newsletter or downloads, pay them to your CRM database.
attention to your brand and talk about it.
Draw from blog posts for your newsletter content. Blogs are a
Social media, for all its advantages, can’t do that much for you on its own. great way of demonstrating your knowledge and willingness to
By integrating your email marketing with your social activity, you boost the initiate relevant discussion. By using your posts to provide content
effect of both disciplines. The following tactics will empower you to better for your newsletters you’ll raise your blog’s profile and bring in
integrate your email and social media marketing: more readers. Your website should also be social media friendly,
fully equipped with feedback functionality and allowing users to
Introduce ‘share’ and ‘subscribe’ buttons to your email messages. It’s sign up for blog update emails through a form.
very straightforward to allow your recipients to share your content across
their social networks, thanks to free widgets like Facebook Connect. They’ll Use email campaign metrics to determine the most popular
likely have friends who could well be your potential customers. If they social networks. Email marketing is notable for its measurability,
enjoy your email content they’ll probably want to follow you on social and you should be able to identify precisely which recipients added
networks too. Ensure they can do all this from the comfort of their inbox. what content to which social networks. This is a great way to help
focus your future activity because you’ll know which are the most
Post relevant email marketing messages on the social networks. If part popular networks.
of your audience doesn’t want to read an email, they shouldn’t have to. You
can encourage fans/followers to share what you post on Facebook, Twitter, Invite suggestions and criticism. If you’re eager to hear people’s
LinkedIn and any other platform they’re using. You can ‘monetize’ your reaction to your latest email, or aren’t sure what to put in your next
subscribers further by promoting events, products, special reports and so on, newsletter, it’s good practice to ask the people what they want
as long as you’re proving value. through social media. They’ll feel more involved and valued, and
you won’t be under so much pressure to keep delivering fresh
Compel your fans and followers to sign up to your newsletter. While it’s content from scratch. Remember, it’s two ears and one mouth,
true you should talk to your audience where they already are and not try too so being a part of the discussion and adjusting your techniques
hard to pull them away, why not ask them if they’d like to receive emails from accordingly will also bring you more effective organic leads.
you? Add a sign up form to your Facebook welcome page. As committed Always listen before you speak.
fans/followers already, they’ll probably appreciate further content from you.
By stimulating subscriptions for your publications, the process of list building
becomes more rewarding as you see the open and click through
rates on your emails increase.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

13. There are many challenges facing email marketers, from spam filters So why is the telephone such a powerhouse for B2B marketers?
to issues with list quality and deliverability, although a good bought-in It is the most flexible and consistently dependable B2B marketing
list should be cleansed and up to date within the last three months. What tool. It’s the nearest thing to face-to-face selling, but with a much
this means is that by relying solely on email marketing you’re reaching lower cost than an on-site sales visit. Most importantly, it can be
a significantly reduced audience than you would by augmenting it with used at just about every stage of the sales and marketing
social media. process.
This connection with social media allows you to build stronger Take full advantage of business to business telemarketing.
relationships and increase the level of trust between you and your
recipients. In order to achieve higher open and response rates, faster I’ve put together a list of the many different ways in which B2B
conversions and increased revenue, you need to prove you’re a trusted marketers can get the best out of the telephone:
source. Social media, as a humanizing agent, helps you prove this.
Market research
The internet has become the leading medium for surveys and
And finally… focus-group research, but the phone still has its place. The
telephone allows a more flexible, proactive approach, allowing
the kind of probing which can gain insights into the prospect’s
Do not neglect the telephone as a B2B needs and motivations.
marketing tool Enquiry qualification
The telephone is historically the main medium for assessing the
quality of enquiries. Email is now an alternative, but a combina-
tion of email marketing, telemarketing and social media is the
The USA Direct Marketing Association Power of Direct Marketing study best approach.
reported that in 2009 B2B direct marketers spent 28 billion on telephone
marketing. This is significantly more than was spent on direct mail: Lead nurturing
$21.4 billion; it also eclipses internet marketing, with a spend of A combination of different tools can be used to keep prospects
$10.9 billion. warm until they’re ready for a sales visit. Combine the telephone
with a variety of other marketing tools: email, events, webinars
The bulk of the telephone budget ($17.5 billion) was used to generate and newsletters for example.
B2B sales leads; another $8.6 billion was used to drive direct order
business. The DMA study reports that telephone marketing generated
$143.1 billion of revenue from phone-based lead generation and $64.4
billion in direct merchandise sales. By any standards, this is impressive
and, despite the digital revolution, demonstrates that the telephone still “Raising the quantity and quality of
reigns supreme as a means of lead generation.
your audience”
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

14. Telemarketing Director-level relationship management
Generate leads and close orders using outbound calls. Certain products in the Use highly skilled and experienced phone-based professionals
B2B world respond particularly well to call centre telemarketing, including: (retired senior managers do a great job here!) to conduct quality
conversations with senior prospects.
IT products and services
Clean up data
Financial products and services The telephone is ideal for contacting key contacts to confirm such details as
job titles and email addresses, etc, to probe and to identify opportunities.
Training products
Engineering/scientific
Testing of offers
B2B email databases tend to be small, which limits traditional split testing,
“The telephone is so carry out a pre-test using the telephone.
Computer software
very much alive
Consumable supplies and conferences and well in B2B. Campaign enhancement
Telephone follow-up of email campaigns works well in the B2B arena.
Educational products Take full
advantage!” Cross-selling using modelling
Business products The telephone is the ideal tool for developing cross-selling offers when
used in conjunction with database modelling. Produce “reason to call” lists
for your telemarketers, using modelling to identify cross-selling opportuni-
ties.
Inside sales
Sales account management can be very effective over the phone. Compared with Internet phone-back
on-site sales visits, supporting accounts by phone is extremely efficient in terms of It’s helpful to offer a live call-back service for visitors to your website, giving
time and cost. Many companies assign field-based sales people to cover the them the chance to strike while the iron is hot.
largest accounts, and internal telephone sales people to cover the mid-sized
accounts, while supporting smaller accounts by email. Welcome new customers
A simple phone call to welcome new customers can really help customer
Telesales retention. Customers will be appreciative at the interest that your company
Order-taking and sales contact via phone is an excellent way to sell low-value, is taking. The telephone can help convert a customer into a fan and
high-volume products. recommender.
Inside account support Win back customers
Team a field-based sales person with an internally based telesales person to Contact dormant customers by telephone to identify the problem and avoid
manage a set of accounts more efficiently. defection.
Setting up appointments
The telephone is the perfect appointment-setting tool, because it supports the sophis-
ticated level of interaction needed to qualify a prospect and set up a meeting.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

15. AND SO...
You’ve seen how social media integrated with email marketing can benefit
your business. It does wonders for your brand development and aware-
ness, as well as boosting web traffic, circulation, renewals, advertising and
product sales. This can all be achieved at a significantly reduced cost
compared to some of the more well-worn mediums, but it still requires a
significant investment.
Social mediums require your time and devotion, and can’t be ‘cheated’.
An understanding of the technical side is also vital. The behind-the-scenes
process can seem overwhelming to traditional marketers, but outside the
new technology the fundamental tenets of marketing endure. It’s at your
peril to overlook it, because your audience and competitors are using social
media even if you’re not.
A firm marketing strategy is essential, along with effective monitoring and
measurement practices. Clear objectives, sufficient resources and a sound
comprehension of your audience’s relevant activity on social networks are
all necessary to reap the rewards of a well integrated approach to email
and social media. In short, you need to choose your email marketing
partner very carefully.
Web and email analytics, combined with social listening and monitoring
tools, enable you to create gauges for key metrics that you can then
monitor and analyse throughout your campaigns. That may sound
complicated but in fact it’s very complicated.
PML Media, in collaboration with Initio Consulting, enable you to leverage
your email marketing campaigns to stimulate recipients to share and
discuss your content across social networks. We help you use those
networks to inform, engage and convert your audience.
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing

16. Integrating email with social media
produced by:
PMLMedia
email, social and search marketing
PML Media Limited
Pantiles Chambers
85 High Street
Tunbridge Wells
Kent, TN1 1XP, UK
W: www.pmlmedia.com
T: +44 (0) 845 505 7897
Initio Consulting Ltd
The SouthboroughCentre
The Warehouse, 1 Draper Street
Southborough, Tunbridge Wells
Kent TN4 0PG, UK
W: www.initioconsulting.com
T:+44 (0)1892 557 280
Design and Illustration by:
www.daveshephard.com
+44(0) 1273486612
mail@daveshephard.com