Email marketing and social media go together like peanut butter and chocolate, like peas and carrots, like…a bunch of other stuff that goes well in pairs. At least, they can if you have the right strategy, as it’s sometimes hard to figure out how to incorporate the two. 

It seems easy enough: just link your social media sites to your email marketing and send people who signed up to your email campaign links to your social media. But you can’t stop there or you’re doomed – eventually you’re going to just be “preaching to the choir” so to speak. And your audience is going to get pretty bored hearing the same messaging from you in their email accounts and on their social media sites.

To help you expand the reach of your dual campaign, here are a handful of pointers.

Call to Action 

Getting people to do anything on the web is often extremely difficult. Unless you specifically tell them to “go do so and so” they won’t even consider it. Even then you may have noticed many users just don’t “have the time” to click a link or watch a video. This is why the call to action is so important.

It’s not just giving instructions. A call to action should give the public some incentive for doing what you say. For example, if you say “Sign up for my email newsletter through Twitter!” or “Share this email marketing list on Facebook!” you should also include a little bait for anyone who reads it. An online coupon, maybe, or a free sample of something is more likely to get people motivated to check it out.

Post Newsletters Elsewhere 

After your emails have gone out to your subscribers (so they get the exclusive look first), post your newsletter around the web for extra coverage. Your blog is one example, but don’t just restrict it there – try pinning it on Pinterest, for example, or sharing snippets of it on Twitter.

You can even turn parts of the newsletter into guest blog posts to send out to your partner sites. Make sure to include a link back to your newsletter on your blog so they can read more and then sign up for even more wisdom.

Embed Signup 

Don’t make anyone go to your website to sign up for the email newsletter. If they’re already on Facebook, they most likely won’t take the time to truly check out your site (see above). The fewer steps it takes for them to do anything the more likely it is they’ll do it.

Facebook lets you build a page on your profile for an Email Signup, so take advantage of it. Try to make it as simple as possible like Crocs does – just enter an email address and you’re done, on to play Candy Crush or whatever. Also take note of the coupon code they offer for signing up!

Accentuate the Social Networks Through Email 

If you’re just including links to your social media sites in your emails without drawing attention to them, you’re probably not getting the best conversion possible. People could read the email and totally skip over the Facebook link or even make a note of it only to forget about it and delete the email.

One way to point out your social media sites exist is to send an entirely separate email that highlights your social media presence. Don’t be spammy, of course, and make sure to give them a reason for bothering them. For example, you could say “You’re only getting half the story! Join us on Twitter at @SoandsoTwitterAccount.”

What are some other ways you can combine your email marketing and social media campaigns?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases (http://www.ereleases.com), the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Grab three ebooks, including My Facebook Formula, a free report on Facebook and why you should be using the largest social network for your business, here: http://www.ereleases.com/insider/freebooks.html