Please "Like" Me: Social Requests Through Email

Recently an influx of fan requests have hit my inbox.  This rise in requests signals a great movement at the intersection of social and email marketing. We know that email marketing can help you grow your social media marketing presence, but let's explore some tips on how you can grow your Facebook fans through email:

1. Including a social push in a welcome message/series
2. Using a strong subject line
3. Clearly defining benefits
4. Using contests as a draw

Welcome Message/Series

Bronto Email Marketing Strategist, Kristen Gregory, highly recommends that a social media introduction always be included as part of a welcome message/series.  As part of introducing new subscribers to your brand/products, a welcome message/series provides the perfect opportunity to promote other channels that subscribers can use to connect to your brand.  You could approach this in a couple different ways, either introduce all your social properties in this email or focus on one channel - giving the subscriber one CTA (Call to Action) not ten (join us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blip.tv, blogs, etc.)  I like this focused approached better as it allows you to concentrate on the benefits of each channel individually, and those benefits are important as we'll address later.

Strong Subject Line

The first request I received was from Seventh Generation. When reading the subject line "Will You 'Like' Us on Facebook?" I jumped onto Facebook, searched for Seventh Generation and clicked "like."

According to Bronto Email Marketing Strategist, Kelly Lorenz, who serves as Seventh Generation's Bronto Strategist, they sent this message to their entire list and received 7,000 new fans.  Did you get that?  That's such a powerful result, I have to repeat it: 7,000 new Facebook fans acquired through one email.  After the first send, Seventh Generation scheduled a remail to non-openers and gained more than an additional 2,000 fans.  That's a total of more than 9,000 fans through two emails sends.  As one of those 9,000 new fans, I can attest that I regularly purchase Seventh Generation's products, I subscribe to their emails, but never searched them out on Facebook before this email.  All it took to get me hooked to their Facebook property was the subject line of their first email.  The power of a direct subject line combined with compelling messaging led to an outstanding result of a wave of new Facebook fans.

Clearly defined benefits

Want to get your point across clearly and quickly?  Bronto Email Marketing Strategist, Julie Waite, notes that this email from Gander Mountain makes it clear why you should become one of their fans on Facebook.  You've convinced your subscribers that there's value in your email campaigns; now sell them on the benefits of becoming a fan.  For Gander Mountain, that means that in addition to the perks found in their email campaigns, take the relationship a step further and become a fan for "special Facebook-only promotions."  But sometimes "perks" aren't just a flashy giveaway.  Benefits of your social properties may simply be the conversations happening there that don't occur anywhere else.  Say you're a clothing retailer - encourage your customers to post pictures of different ways they've paired your items, then promote to your subscriber base that this channel is a great way to get new fashion ideas.

Contests

Not ready to give away a 10% discount (a tactic seen by some retailers) in order to get a fan?  Still encourage those Facebook "likes" without "giving away the farm."  Use contests and giveaways that give people a chance to receive a prize in appreciation, but doesn't guarantee a reward.

A remaining tip, consider remailing.  As we saw with Seventh Generation's campaign a remail generated nearly 35% additional fans.  Through remailing, you can test different subject lines, compare a discount vs. a contest, or test your CTA (call to action).

What are some other tactics that you've used in your social promotions in email that have seen positive results - comment below!

Caroline Smith
Community Marketing Manager
@Bronto