Increase clicks by integrating social media into your email marketing

Companies have conducted email marketing campaigns for years; at least for a solid decade now. It’s simple – acquire email addresses of current and potential customers and market your products and services by sending daily, weekly or monthly emails, and then hope one of them calls, emails, or visits your website to purchase products and services. There doesn’t seem like there is much more than you can do.

However, it seems the social media marketing is catching on and benefiting companies that integrate social media into their email marketing campaigns. Email messages that include an option to share via social media websites are driving the increase in click-through rates, according to a study conducted by GetResponse, an email marketing firm.

GetResponse studied 500 million emails sent using their services. They found that those emails that included the options to share on Facebook or Twitter resulted in a 30 percent higher click-through rate on emails without them. When emails included at least three options to share, publishers saw a 55 percent higher CTR on average. Despite the evidence, many companies are slow to incorporate more than one social media sharing option into their email marketing campaigns. GetResponse reported only 11.2 percent of emails offered three or more options to share.

With more than 400 million Facebook users and counting, allowing email marketing recipients an opportunity to share using Facebook makes sense. However, not everyone is on Facebook. Many professionals prefer the social media website LinkedIn. And many Facebook and LinkedIn users have Twitter accounts. Just to be safe, including all options to share using Facebook, LinkIn and Twitter should put you on the right track. However, if you don’t understand your target market and the social media websites they use, your email marketing campaigns may not be as effective as they could be.