Email marketing lessons from Twitter

It’s difficult to avoid the mention of social media these days when it comes to online marketing. The rise of businesses using tools such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in their marketing activities has risen exponentially over the past year. In Australia alone, traffic to Twitter has increased by an annualised rate of 3,200% since January 2009 so it’s easy to see why marketers are jumping on the social bandwagon.

While these tools aren’t for every business or organisation, if you are using them (or considering using them), they can be a valuable complement to your email marketing program. At its most basic level, social media provides you with more avenues to get your message out quickly, drive traffic to your website or event, interact with your customers or simply promote your brand.

Besides the obvious complementary benefits, there are a number of added benefits you can glean from simply using these tools that will help you become a better email marketer.

• Crafting an effective subject line
  The brevity required for Twitter updates (140 characters) provides excellent training ground for writing short, but engaging, subject lines. It’s all about getting attention quickly and giving your recipients a reason to open your email.
• Writing short teaser copy that links to more information
  Many organisations use social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, to post links to their articles, papers or reports. These are usually accompanied by a short sentence or paragraph introducing the post. This is an equally effective style to use in your email newsletters and allows you to measure response.
• Creating a conversation with your audience
  Email is a one-to-one communication with your recipients - often overlooked in the quest to get messages out to as many people as possible. Social media is by nature interactive and can help you focus on communicating with individuals (targeting) versus lists (blasting).

Whether or not you choose to integrate social media into your online marketing program, you can still integrate these learnings to craft more effective content for your email marketing communications. Sign up for some of the more popular sites and see what others are doing (including your competitors!).

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