Despite all the conflicting buzz and your crazy calendar, your efforts at email marketing and your social media campaigns can (easily mix). Don’t worry…it’s more a case of working smarter instead of just harder and longer! You’re not just saving time by killing two birds with one stone (sorry little birds), but you can actually make each process more effective by combining them together. 1 + 1 equals a LOT more than 3 in this case. Essentially, you are taking what is good in one area and combining it with what’s good in another. Here are eight killer tips on how to tie your social media efforts and your email marketing campaigns together, making each stronger (sing it Kelly Clarkson!):

1. Always share on social media

The “Forward to a Friend” link is now viewed with suspicion.  Chances are, if your recipient does not have much of an experience with you or your business, he or she will not give you a colleague’s email address.  You lose out because you may have really good content on that newsletter, but it stops right there in your recipient’s inbox.

Instead, allow your recipients to share your content to their Facebook friends, or have them tweet their followers about it by clicking on a single button. Consider other networks like LinkedIn if you have more of a B2B audience.

» DOG TIP: Mail Dog’s Social Media Share Tools allows subscribers to share your email with THEIR social network with just a click of a button. Learn more online 

2. Highlight the conversation

A good way to illustrate this is if you are marketing an event.  Create a hashtag or a separate Twitter account for your particular event and include these in your email.  This allows you to engage them outside of the email that you sent.

Similarly, your conference speakers might prove to be your biggest brand ambassadors yet.  Ask your resource speakers if you could include their Twitter handles in your email.  It’s a win-win situation as they gain more followers from you, while you get more credibility and authority from them.

3. Publish email articles to your blog

Re-purpose your email content and extend the life of your newsletter articles, while making sure that more people would be able to benefit from your content. Your blog content is an important archive for branding, centralization, plus you get more exposure to potential followers, readers, shares and fans.

4. Using social media to expand your email recipients list

Facebook and Twitter allow you to engage your customers on a deeper level than anywhere else.  You can win their trust with great content, shares from other sources, and re-tweets.  In time, they will see you as a trusted source of information in your industry or business.  So when you ask them to subscribe to your newsletter, it would be highly likely that they will.

How? Encourage them to give you their contact details and email addresses by offering an incentive such as free merchandise, a whitepaper, a contest entry while also having them subscribe to your newsletter.

» DOG TIP: Integrate your Mail Dog Optin Form into Facebook with 5 easy steps.
Learn more online

5. Cast your net on Facebook, follow it up with an email

Social media is a good way for you to go beyond your email lists.  A blog post that you put up on your Facebook page can get shared by your fans or re-tweeted by your followers on Twitter, making it easier for other people to discover you.

Once you get a new like or follower, engage them and get their e-mail address or have them subscribe to your newsletter.  After they do so, always send them a thank you note, which will serve as your icebreaker for further emails from your business.

6. Customer service should end with an email

Twitter has been touted as a great avenue for disgruntled customers to vent their frustrations with the companies they deal with.  It is also a great way to actually get help when you need it.  If you were fortunate enough to catch a complaining customer, reply to that person immediately on Twitter, say that you have sent them an email with further instructions on how to contact you so that you could help.  Be sure to get their email addresses so that you could keep in touch with them outside of Twitter.

7. Own your multimedia content

If you mail a catalog to your customers, consider hosting the pictures up on Pinterest or Flickr, while putting up your videos on YouTube.  This way your pictures and videos are easily seen by other people who may not even know you or your business.

When creating emails, put up a short text or a small thumbnail that describes your video or photo and invite them to visit your social media page.  For example, include a small selection of your best photos and give them the link to your Flickr album or Pinterest board.

8. Craft your email’s content from your blog

If you run a daily blog and a monthly email newsletter, you might want to use your most popular blog posts and send them to your newsletter subscribers!