With this installment in our Facebook Summit Series, we address the integration and key metrics businesses can utilize between their Facebook and email campaigns.  A webinar by Jay Baer helped illustrate the similarities between the two and described how to leverage each tool to optimize messaging. In this webinar, Baer compared Facebook to Lady Gaga and email to Madonna, pointing out that the two could be the same person in terms of talent, they just wear different costumes.

The following categories outline a few of the areas that are similar between the two tools:

By Meg Archer, Account Manager

When planning for your next email marketing program, think beyond the catchy subject line and “Welcome” email, consider ways to encourage your lead to take the next step.

You have tested email subject lines and have an intriguing one-liner nailed down, what comes next? According to Ryan Deutsch, vice president of Strategic Services at StrongMail, it is time to start planning an educational lead nurturing email campaign—or a “Welcome Program.”

A typical email marketing campaign begins when a potential lead subscribes to further communication from a company. In response, the company typically sends a “welcome” email. Deutsch argues that a single “welcome” message doesn’t cut it—there needs to be more communication and education for the program to be effective.

Let’s say you join a running club. You don’t say hello to your new running buddies and then never say another word—you chat.  In doing so, you build a relationship based on your common interest in running by sharing tips and personal stories. Deutsch suggests that the same must occur when designing an email marketing program. A subscriber should be coached and integrated with the brand through multiple communications.

By Amanda Jurgens, Account Coordinator

In today’s digital world, consumers are flooded with marketing emails.  How do marketers create email campaigns that stand out and avoid the dreaded “unsubscribe?”

Hours of design, copy and proofing go into sending a marketing email. But, if emails do not solicit a response, why open them? Even marketers are guilty of the mass inbox delete. Despite this, we still analyze open and click-through rates and wonder what went wrong.

Customers are inundated with emails. Nearly everything you buy online or in a store opts you into email marketing campaigns. Often, consumers end up on a list they were never interested in and certainly don’t care to receive nearly constant communication. In a study by ExactTarget, researchers found that 9 out of 10 subscribers later opt-out of email communication, citing that mailings are too frequent, contain repetitive content or are irrelevant because the consumer didn’t realize they were opting in to begin with.

So, as a marketer, how do you convince someone who has already expressed interest in your communications (whether intentionally or not) to take the next step and actually open the email? The answer seems all too obvious: by creating emails that your customers want to read.

Craft emails containing information that makes the reader’s job easier. It is as simple as that. Create emails that offer a reward, emails that make information easier to locate, or emails that offer some tangible value to your particular audience.

By Meg Archer, SEM Specialist

Don’t Discount the Power of E-mail Campaigns in Your Marketing Strategy

In a marketer’s toolbox, e-mail is a powerful tool. Last year, some experts speculated that 2011 would be the year e-mail campaigns died. Boy, were they wrong. There have been a few changes in the way e-mail campaigns are created and executed, but e-mail marketing campaigns still provide strong, measurable results. Here at 90octane, for example, we continue to see success in the quality of the conversions created by our current e-mail programs.

According to ClickZ, email campaigns that are integrated with social and mobile media create a stronger message, thus allowing customers to participate in a conversation about your brand, via the media channel of their choice. Customers may reply to an e-mail via Facebook, LinkedIn, a corporate blog or Twitter. Today, the busy B2B subscriber expects e-mails to contain pertinent information that allows them to seek out and engage with your brand via other media channels. Embedding “share with your network” (SWYN) links to e-mails has become a best practice, and according to ClickZ, is a good first step. It is also important to develop a deeper relationship with your B2B customer by understanding the business goals that drive their needs, and incorporating them into e-mail messaging. This is a critical step, and one that could significantly impact your marketing program.

Posted by: Grant Garcia, Marketing Coordinator

Historically, email has been a great way to effectively maintain customer contact, while also providing useful industry news and resources. However, because online marketing is evolving and becoming more competitive, inboxes are overflowing with messages that are poorly targeted and irrelevant to users. How, then, do you get your message to rise above the clutter? Incorporating social media and mobile marketing into your email programs can enhance contact with customers at different touch points, while also encouraging interaction.

Companies are utilizing social media calls to action within their email marketing campaigns but are lagging in the implementation of mobile-optimized email. Business emails often include the “Like us on Facebook” or “Follow us on Twitter” buttons, but that’s not enough. According to a recent eROI survey, 63% of marketers say that they’re not even measuring the use of mobile devices for email subscribers. In the same survey, nearly 15% of marketers said that optimizing email marketing for mobile is not important. These statistics are frightening considering that 70 million smartphones are currently in use, with predictions that they will overtake traditional phones within the next 12 months, according to Technewsworld.com.