Would cultivating relationships help in your business?
The answer is yes unless you are selling a product that goes off the shelf.
How do you do that well without diluting focus from what matters today?
The answer is use email marketing and social media with a very well thought out strategy behind it. There is a lot of synergy between the two marketing channels as they both help in networking and relationships development.
Where do I find time?
The most effective tactics require creation of content and engaging in meaningful conversation using it – and that requires time. A recent article from eMarketer on social media engagement validated the premise as well that engagement requires time and effort.
We have a focused strategy and industry knowledge that allow us to be an execution partner for our customers in the architecture, construction, manufacturing and other B2B markets. We help them in formulating the marketing strategy using the business and market analysis. We use that to become their partners in execution of the sales and marketing strategy. One of our keys to success with execution is an effective content strategy; we create whitepapers, case studies, project overviews and implement campaigns using email marketing, social media postings to engage with target prospects.
Email Marketing and Social Media – Two ways to leverage
What can you do to integrate the social media into your email marketing strategy? There are two things:
- Build your social network following.
- Facilitate channeling your content on external social networks.
Build Your Social Media Following
Guide people to join you on Facebook. Grow your following on Twitter. If you have your own online forums or discussion groups, invite them to join. If you have a blog, get them to participate in your discussions.
Build quality discussion threads on social media channels that add value to your prospects. Educate them. And then use email marketing as a direct tool to get people to join you there and build on these interactions.
Leverage external social media channels
Provide links for your readers to share your content on social media channels. A couple of handy ways to do this are ShareThis and AddThis. They allow your readers to share your content on Facebook, Twitter, and range of other social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, and Delicious.
This can be a very effective guerrilla marketing tool, as you can get a lot of people to come to your website, blog, and other social media sites using this technique.
What makes marketing campaigns special?
It’s the quality of your content. Remember that content, when combined well with conversations, is a powerful combination. It generates leads for you, enhances your brand value, helps you manage your online reputation and credibility, and helps you retain your customers.
Do you use email marketing and social media channels in your marketing? We would love to hear your stories on this.
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Questions or Comments?