Using Social Media to Optimize Your Email Marketing, Part I: 10 Tips for Twitter Success

Today there are over 75 million Twitter users and more than 400 million people on Facebook. So if social media is not yet part of your company’s marketing plan, it may be time to jump on the proverbial bandwagon. In this month’s feature — part 1 of a 2-part series — you’ll find 10 tips for how to use Twitter to help optimize your current email-marketing program.

How Twitter Works

Twitter is the social network that lets you post messages (tweets) of 140 characters or less to your Twitter followers. What does it mean to be a “follower” of someone on Twitter? His or her tweets will show up on your Twitter timeline. And you can follow all of the people and companies you want on Twitter — without their approval — as long as their Twitter accounts are set on public status.

A great thing about Twitter is that, as a company, you can reach out and tweet to people two or three times a day without seeming too intrusive. So by getting a number of followers on Twitter, you can use this medium to effectively get the message out about your company’s products and services. In this way, Twitter can be a valuable tool for boosting the results of your email marketing campaigns. Here are 10 tips for using Twitter to do just that:

  1. Link to your Twitter account from all your email communications.
    Let everyone know your company is on Twitter — and make finding you immediately easy — by including a Twitter link in your email newsletters, promotional emails, event invitations, etc. Plus, don’t forget to include a Twitter link in your email signature.

  2. Convert Twitter followers into opt-in email subscribers.
    Periodically invite your Twitter followers to join your email subscriber list by tweeting about the subscription benefits and including a link to a sign-up landing page.

  3. Ask for Twitter addresses in your email subscriber forms.
    A great way to build your Twitter following is by capturing Twitter addresses in your email subscriber forms. (This information request could be optional — you don’t want to turn off potential subscribers with too many required information fields.)

  4. Use your Twitter bio line to drive people to your business Web site.
    Although you’re allowed only 160 characters in your Twitter bio line, use that space to pique interest and tout the benefits of your company’s services or products. Why should people want to learn more about your company? That’s what you want to summarize in your Twitter bio. Also, be sure to include a newsletter signup on your landing page to help capture the people who click through.

  5. Add a Twitter column in your email newsletter.
    What are some interesting tweets you’ve recently sent? Have followers tweeted noteworthy questions or comments? These are a couple of ideas of what to include in this section. If customers tweet positive experiences about your products or services, include them, too. They can serve as great testimonials for your company.

  6. Tweet links to individual articles from your email newsletter.
    When you release your email newsletter, tweet about it and include a link. Plus, consider creating more interest in your newsletters — and getting more marketing mileage out of them — by tweeting links to individual articles.

  7. Keep your tweets relevant.
    Beware of bombarding your Twitter followers with too many commercial messages. If you’re perceived as a Twitter spammer, people are bound to unfollow you. Intersperse your commercial messages with other types of tweets, such as industry news updates, retweets of other interesting and related information, etc.

  8. Use Twitter for research via URL-shortening sites.
    Besides using URL-shortening sites such as Bit.ly to reduce the length of the links you tweet, you’ll find that they are also useful for researching your marketing results. Track what tweets have generated the most response among your followers. Plus, if you tweet subject lines of your email newsletters or special promotions, you can track which ones are resonating with your Twitter followers. All of this data is fantastic for helping you determine the topics of greatest interest for your newsletter subscribers and promotions that resonate most with your followers.

  9. Follow the rules of Twitter etiquette.
    Tweet others the way you want to be tweeted. Here are a few important rules to keep in mind:

    • Don’t cross the line of becoming an annoyance with too many tweets per day.
    • Thank followers for their retweets of your information.
    • Be responsive to questions, problems, and requests sent to you via Twitter. In other words, participating rather than simply sending promotional blasts is important.

  10. Budget the time you spend on Twitter marketing.
    Like most social media, twitter can become addictive. You may also hesitate to get involved with Twitter marketing because you think it requires a huge investment of time. So set limits on the amount of time you spend each day or week on Twitter. Fifteen minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening, for example, would get you off to a good start on the way to Twitter-marketing success.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how to use Twitter to help improve your email marketing efforts, we can help. Click here or give us a call today at 215-489-1931. Plus, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MitchLapides.

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