Guest post by: Remy Bergsma

Viewing email marketing as a single, independent channel is not the way to go when it comes to online marketing. It should be part of a bigger, total marketing plan where it sits together with other channels in the marketing spectrum. Be it SEO, adwords, banners, your website, social media or video: email can work together with those in a great way.

Here are some examples to show how the other online channels can strengthen email, and the other way around as well.

Example 1: List building through social media

Some of you might already be doing it: great! Skip this part. But many are not paying attention to this great and simple way to get quality subscribers. Put up an email newsletter signup form on your company Facebook Page. Simple, single action – which will pay back very well with new subscribers. Make it simple, direct and well structured in terms of follow up: send a confirmation email and have new subscribers select topics they want to hear about.

Another way of list building is through Twitter: imagine sending out a newsletter at 1PM the next day. Send out a tweet a few hours before to notify people that the newsletter will be sent that day and they can sign up to receive it. The combination of urgency and quick delivery of the newsletter will get people to sign up.

Example 2: Specific promotion of online content in email campaigns

There are many times that a newsletter contains 5 content items or more. However, people are low on time and attention spans these days. They want quick, bite sized pieces of information that they can take in, digest and in best case scenarios share with others. That’s where your carefully crafted content comes into play.

You’d have a cool video about an industry standard which you’re discussing, an upcoming event video or a demonstration of a new product feature for instance. That type of content is both unique and, because of being video, very digestible. Therefor such content deserves a separate ’email bit’ to subscribers to keep them up to date.

This coincides with not contacting your subscribers 5 or 6 times per year, but on a much more regular basis, making sure your brand and/or product(s) will be and stay top of mind. If I haven’t heard from you in 1 or 2 months, do I really think of you that often?

Example 3: Sharing is caring – make it unique and spread it!

There are times that some channels are used for unique content and offers. For instance, some retailers have Twitter-exclusive offers: only people who click through from Twitter or use a unique Twitter code can make use of an offer.

The same can be done with email though, the other way around. If you make the content for email unique at first, the ‘newsworthiness’ of the content will be bigger and better than when people have already heard or read about it via other channels. This also means they are more inclined to share it with others through various networks (including email itself, the best social network!) because they will then be the first tier of news bringing people.

These are just 3 basic examples of using other online channels like video and social media to enrich and expand the email channel: it can be so much more than just a simple newsletter!

About the author:
Remy Bergsma is community manager by title, email marketing enthusiast by profession. Working in the email industry for more than 5 years now, he’s keen on writing about many email marketing topics including list management, email design, campaigns and deliverability. His email blog can be found at http://emailblog.eu.