Businesses are increasingly reliant on content marketing to inform and educate prospects and existing customers. While content plays a vital role in conveying a company's brand message, online engagement is critical to promoting this message and solidifying relationships with its target audience. Online engagement tools such as social media and eMail marketing allow a brand to interact with prospects and customers dynamically and transparently, driving home its core message in both word and deed.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is one of the greatest community building tools in history. Content shared on social media amplifies a company's online presence, while transparent social exchanges project its authenticity, fostering longstanding connections with new prospects and existing customers. Social media marketing recognizes each social follower as a person interested in the brand. Companies should use social to expand brand reach and engage prospects on their terms.
Moreover, businesses can use data gleaned from social interactions to better understand the interests, wants and needs of their target audience. Such information allows for greater personalization in brand messaging and in marketing content, guiding prospects down the sales funnel more efficiently.
EMAIL MARKETING
As consumers demand more relevance in the type of content received and the nature of its delivery, dynamic and personalized eMail marketing campaigns are becoming indispensable to online content promotion. Through a series coordinated emails, brands are able to send out highly personalized content tailored to audience segment and stage of the buying cycle. These campaigns allow brands to efficiently nurture new prospects down the sales funnel and to stay connected with existing clients.
Businesses that recognize this are enjoying higher rates of lead conversion. In 2011, MarketingSherpa showed that data-driven, targeted eMail campaigns resulted in 30% more opens, 30% to 50% higher click-through rates, and 3X more conversions.¹
Interestingly, the rush to mobile has actually increased eMail marketing efficacy. According to Litmus, the number of eMails opened on a mobile device increased 132% over the last year, and more eMail is now read on mobile than on desktop PCs or on Web mail.¹
INTEGRATION IS KEY
To form connections that matter, businesses need to produce original content that is exceptional, personalized, and relevant. Moreover, it should be optimized for any platform or device on which it could potentially be viewed or consumed via social sharing.
By responsively engaging with their audience over social and eMail, companies are able to promote their content and message in a concise manner. Brands can take advantage of social and eMail analytics, adjusting their message to fit the ever-changing demands of each segment of their target audience.
As useful as social and eMail marketing are individually, they represent but two elements of a fully integrated digital marketing strategy.
¹Lyris, "The Future of eMail"