Image by: European Parliament
By Michael Sterling

Facebook has invaded nearly every home in America. Nowadays you don’t even need to be logged in to be on Facebook, which is why it’s important for business owners to figure out how to be in two places at once. With new integration strategies, email marketing is seeing new innovations in recent years.

With a bit of street smart and a savvy marketing plan, you will be able to reach your customers at all hours of the day – whether their online or not. If you play the game right, you may be able to grow your networks and see a significant increase in returns.

According to a study from DDB, 84% of people that have “liked” a company Facebook page were current customers. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. No one is necessarily going to like a company page if they don’t know who they are – that’s a waste of space on their feed. Still the question is: how did the other 16% come about?

Know What Your Customers Want

It’s time to be hands on. Chances are, if your customer has returned at least 3 times, they will “like” your company page on Facebook. Once they do, you now have access in reaching them and getting a sense of what they like and dislike. Pay attention to their comments, “likes,” “shares,” and “invites.”

Test The Waters

Facebook is a great testing ground in figuring out what the typical customer responds to. Photos, videos, audio tracks, and infographics can be great for getting customer feedback. With this information, you can incorporate the most trending topics towards your email marketing strategy.

Another great idea is to pay attention to your headlines, taglines, email subject lines, and log lines. Get a sense for what grabs their attention from the get-go. With this data, you gain a better idea of what “style” you should be going for.

*Tip: Invest in reliable Analytics software. You will be able to see what turns your customers off, which will help develop your strategy.

Separate The Strategies

Facebook and personal email have coinciding intentions for the person logged in, so your email marketing strategy should offer something different than what you would offer on Facebook. Let them each stand on their own, while having a similar core message.

When people are skimming their Facebook, they’re usually looking to network or be entertained, so the content should be fun and engaging. When they’re on their email, it’s typically for business or personal correspondence, so you might have better luck in keeping to the point while making it easy to read.

Appeal To Both Worlds

Think in terms of sales, discounts, and updated news. Obviously, these should all have some incorporation with both email and Facebook, but how can you please their intended ventures? One important thing to point out is that you have much more room in a body of an email than you do in a simple Facebook update, which gives you more opportunities to sell.

Let the email be the “brochure” and Facebook be your “cashier.” People love to scroll down their emails to see the wide variety of offers. This effort is a bit more complex on Facebook, since they need to go to the company page itself and scroll down the various updates to locate offers and deals.

Show Your Gratitude 

Customers love to hear feedback, especially if it’s from other customers. If your customers are leaving comments that are worth sharing, incorporate it into your email content, and vice versa.

It’s always a great idea to keep people in the loop of your company’s success. For every thousand “likes,” make it a cause for celebration. Email blasts like, “We’ve reached over 2K likes on social media. Thank you for being a loyal customer! To thank you, we would like to offer you this special discount…”