Sometimes it is valuable to step back
and look at the elements in the
marketing mix and how they interrelate.
There are three that I call the troika
of digital promotional marketing: email
marketing, social media and search. Each
of these in their own right is a
powerful tool, but linking how you use
these three allows you to take advantage
of that power on a much higher level,
and results in greater dividends as
these media elements continue to grow.
So how
do you do it? First you must make sure
that your organization is adequately
represented across all three of the
components. This means taking an
inventory of sorts. If you are reading
this, you probably already have a fairly
strong component in the email marketing
space, but what about the other two?
In the
search arena, are you doing both paid
and organic search optimization? If you
are, you most likely are driving traffic
to your site. But how about to your
newsletter and email subscription page?
Have you optimized this page to get
traffic that will bring new subscribers?
What about the content in your
newsletters? Have you taken each issue
and moved it to the Web, added title
tags and meta tags so that all of the
content is accessible to the search
engines? Have you thought about adding
paid search terms that drive traffic to
highly relevant newsletter pages?
This
brings us to the emerging world of
social media. Do you Tweet, Blog, Link,
Digg, Flickr, YouTube (or any of the
myriad Web 2.0 sites where users rule
the roost)? If not, get involved. If you
are in marketing, you have to understand
these technologies from two
perspectives. You must be listening to
your customer and the market, and you
need to be an active participant in the
conversation.
Rohit
Bhargava, who just wrote an excellent
new book titled "Personality Not
Included," blogged about "The Five Rules
of Social Media Optimization." Most can
easily be applied to your email content.
For example, include buttons on the
content archive pages so that others can
easily tag your content (such as by
including a Digg button). Also,
encourage "mash-ups" such as making your
content easily available for others to
syndicate with RSS feeds. Tag your
content with relevant tags so they are
visible and consistent.
Make
it easy for others to Tweet about you.
When you create a newsletter, let your
network know about it. Encourage others
in your organization to circulate the
information across their social
networks. I am not suggesting that you
spam a social network. You must already
be actively part of the conversation to
have credibility. However, when the
opportunity presents itself, and if you
have relevant information (which you
should have if your newsletter is good),
take advantage of it.
Finally, if you blog, it should
interact with your email marketing. For
example, it should contain a
subscription link to your newsletter. If
people like what you blog about they are
likely to enjoy your newsletter. Also,
use your newsletter to educate readers
to the existence of your blog.
If the
social media elements sound complicated,
they aren't. They do require an
investment in time and intense work.
Used together they will help all
elements of the marketing program grow.
It would be great to Tweet about this.
Follow me @jordanayan. If you don't know
what I mean, head on over to Twitter.com
and sign up for an account. You will
have taken a step in the social media
direction.
Jordan
Ayan is CEO and founder of
SubscriberMail, an email marketing
company that helps organizations
successfully develop and deliver email
communications. He is the author of "The
Practical Guide to Email Marketing:
Strategies and Tactics for Inbox
Success." He can be reached at Jordan@subscribermail.com.
