What does email marketing mean to you? Because it really should mean a lot, especially if you want to get a whole load of leads to add to every stage of your sales funnel and generate revenue.
Social media on the other hand, is what rules communication, advertising and many aspects of our day-to-day lives, from job hunting (LinkedIn) to a simple exchange of views (Twitter) and creativity (Instagram).
Therefore, it’s no wonder that brands leverage social media and spend hefty amounts on online ad campaigns that sometimes don’t get the ROI that was promised.
Email marketing’s ROI, however, is one of the most appealing things about it, as it can generate around $40 on every dollar invested, making it the more cost-effective choice.
But what happens when you’ve got the social media profiles but not the email list to work with? Well, you combine the two mediums of course! Grab your professional email address and keep reading to learn more on how to use social media to grow your email list.
In this article
Upload your contacts to your social media profiles
You know, that “Find friends” feature every social media platform has? Well, you should definitely use it, and for a number of reasons.
First of all, no matter how small or large your email list already is, following your subscribers on social media gives them another kind of feel, when it comes to the relationship they have with your brand. It makes things more personal.
And since things get more personal, your subscribers will be a billion times more likely to act as brand ambassadors, either through referral marketing or through the much-needed likes and shares you need, in order to get your brand out there and make it go viral.
You see, your subscribers already know your brand, they’ve already found value in it and chosen to trust it. This will give you some advantage.
Create a social media profile that generates leads
“Oh wow, I hadn’t thought of that!” I can hear you say in a very, very sarcastic tone dear reader, but bear with me.
Your social media pages can-and should-contain all the information your follower needs, to become a subscriber with no fuss at all.
Therefore, you’ll need to have your homepage link somewhere that will be visible, ie on your Twitter bio, your Instagram bio or your Facebook’s about page.
Another step you could take would be adding a link to a landing page on your Facebook page in the form of a “Sign Up” button:
This will lead your followers to a landing page, and landing pages are created to convert. If you click on the above sign up button, for example, you get to this page:
As you can see, the landing page is packed with simple, clear CTAs that show the value of the sign-up button. If the user subscribes, they’ll “Stay on top of news” and “See recent issues”. Essentially, they’ll know exactly what they need to know. This little button will help you put your Facebook fans to good use when it comes to growing your email list.
Twitter chats are big! Literally
I’m not talking about the most common use of a tweet, of course. Faves, RTs and the likes are a great way to get visibility-the more the better, after all-however, Twitter chats are a fantastic way to create a conversation.
The only thing you need is to think of a question or two-or twelve-around a certain topic in your niche. Create a hashtag and set a date and time for your Twitter chat to take place and you’ll see many people looking for answers or willing to share some insight, join the conversation.
Again, you’ll need to show value, you’ll need to show that you can actually offer some insight or some kind of solution to people that need it. So, don’t even hesitate to partner up with an influencer in your niche.
This is where you’ll build a strong community, one that will actually care about what you’ve got to say and that will lead to more traffic on your website, more exposure, more authority and eventually, you’ll watch your email list grow.
Stories will grab attention-and emails!
Instagram is, undoubtedly, one of the most successful-and addictive-social media platforms, but there’s more to it than contests and pictures.
Insta stories are a feature that is amongst the most powerful-and a truly genius way to gain exposure and grab emails all at the same time!
Stories are, by default, designed for interaction: You can answer, react to them, start a whole conversation, add text and GIFs while showcasing a “behind the scenes” activity or a new feature and put that little “Swipe up” arrow at the bottom of the page.
This little arrow gets your viewers to a separate page. Sounds like the perfect place to talk about a freebie that will provide more insight-especially if it can be combined with a new product, such as a new landing page builder, doesn’t it?
Once your viewers get redirected to the page that you’ve linked, the process is pretty simple: Your viewers will be asked to give out their email in order to download the freebie and everybody wins: You win at lead generation and your viewers get valuable content for free!
The only downside is that you’ll need more than 10k followers on Instagram, in order to get the much-needed arrow. This is where another app with that feature can come to the rescue: Snapchat!
Snapchat will allow you to add any link you’d like, limitation-free. Just make sure to add your Snapchat username to your Insta bio and follow the same process.
And if you need yet another workaround…
How about a giveaway?
Running a giveaway is one of the best email list building strategies. It’s a fun way for you to show your current subscribers how much you appreciate their support. At the same time it’s an effective way to attract new email subscribers to your list.
You can host an Instagram giveaway, which is something that will always get people to notice your brand. In general, Instagram giveaways are preferred by brands and consumers alike because both parties can get something out of one single post that doesn’t really cost too much-if anything at all.
Because on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and other social media we can’t ask for user’s emails we need to drive them to our giveaway’s landing page.
Instagram doesn’t allows you to share links but you can add a branded link as a text in the description or an active link in your Instagram bio. If you have over 10,000 followers or you’re a verified user you can also add the swipe up link to your Instagram story.
Or maybe free resources?
You could always add a post that will be describing a resource of yours-a recent blog post, for example, or a how-to checklist, a free online consultation session, anything-that will be downloadable.
For example:
Now, if you go to this account’s bio and click on the link, you’ll get redirected here:
Click on the first link and you’ll get this page:
Anyone who’s interested will go for the freebies and the brand is happy because they’ll be able to grow their list by giving away a little something that won’t matter too much to them, in the end.
Do that and, again, encourage your followers to share the resource if they like it. You’ll see people subscribing and your email list grow in no time, I promise!
LinkedIn groups can work to your advantage
LinkedIn is a social media platform that differs significantly from other platforms. This is because its main goal is to bring companies, employees, and customers together.
But how can you make LinkedIn work for your email marketing endeavors?
Pro Tip: See how you can make email marketing work for social media here!
LinkedIn groups are a great way to make people notice your product. And since we’re talking about groups and not random people, chances are that your product or service will be of value anyway.
You can create a group, invite people in your niche and post content every so often (once a week or more). Post articles, infographics, polls, encourage people to share, like, engage in some conversation and find more and more people to add to your group.
Once your LinkedIn group makes it and gets as large as you’d like it to, you can move to the next step, which would be promoting a freebie in exchange for your contacts to join your email list.
But you don’t need a group to make that happen-not just that, at least. You could also promote a link to your lead magnet through your profile and make any and all connections necessary, those that would be interested in your freebie, at least.
Host a webinar
Or better yet, host a free webinar.
Generally speaking, webinars are amongst the most useful tools, when it comes to list building, exposure, engagement, pretty much everything.
The main reason behind this is the fact that it’s way easier for everyone to watch a video on how to do something, rather than read a “How To” post, no matter how detailed it may be.
Webinars are a fantastic way to grow your email list. Post your event consistently across your social media profiles and make sure that all followers on all platforms are made aware of your webinar.
By promoting how your followers can learn from the experts, you’ll have more and more people get to your landing page and sign up for your free webinar.
Which means what? But more email sign-ups, of course!
Back to you
You can also include your social media buttons in the emails you send to your already existing sign-ups of course or, better yet, promote your newest social media post to your newsletter or some of your newsletter’s content to one (or more) social media posts.
Whatever you do, the end goal is this: Make things enticing enough for a prospect to turn to a sign-up, to turn, eventually, to a converting customer.
So, what say you? Do you think that these tips are enough? Are there more, that you have used but didn’t see on this list?
Don’t hesitate to tell us in the comments and share the knowledge!
