How to Make Social Fit Into Your Email Marketing & PPC Campaigns

August 12, 2011

Marketing

Lad Makinde

As a working professional in the industry I can say first hand that in the digital marketing business it can be hard to stay on top of all the trends and changes that seemingly occur on a daily basis. So much so, that sometimes it feels like we’re all so busy jumping to and fro from the next big thing, to the next-next big thing that we tend to forget, and in many cases, abandon the basic tools that have proven to be successful for us time and time again.

In this post I want to highlight two of these forgotten gems (email marketing and pay per click) and illustrate how we can and should be integrating them into our regular business marketing models.

Email Marketing –

Throughout the 90’s and into the new millennium, email or “direct” marketing dominated the business world. There was no such thing as a marketing campaign without an email aspect. Then drastically, and without warning, web 2.0 rolled along and with it came the introduction of social media. All of a sudden email marketing was no longer the coolest kid in class.

Marketers did what we always do and began distancing ourselves from the old passé flame and embracing the new world of social marketing. But like any old flame, email marketing really never left . The marketers who had foresight realized this and never actually stopped using the tool. For those who did jump ship we’re actually beginning to see a change, almost a return if you will, to the proven potential of email marketing.

Further proof of this is that many companies are now offering robust services combining their email and social efforts as a package. In fact, earlier this week I received an email from direct marketing giant Constant Contact inviting me to attend a seminar on Social Media Integration Strategies for Email Marketing. This is just one example and there’s so much more to say however I’ll leave it at that for now because our very own Shannon Spence is writing an article on this very topic that will be published here later this month, so stay tuned for that.

*Email & Social Tip –

Combine your social media efforts with your email marketing or vice versa. Social media, if you’re doing it correctly, should enhance and streamline your processes, which should include your email marketing strategy. (Yes you should have a strategy)

Pay Per Click (PPC) –

The other day as I was surfing the internet, aka wasting time at work, I ran across a blog post from a prominent and reputable social media “guru”. The post outlined all the reasons why traditional pay per click campaigns were outdated and how PPC in general would soon become more and more unnecessary as the digital landscape became more and more social.

In some sense I agreed with this sentiment because I do feel like marketers have found that there better ways to get on the first page of Google for certain keywords than paying for one of the top 3 spots. What I didn’t agree with was the assumption that eventually PPC would become irrelevant. I think that what’s going to happen is a more streamlined version of what you see already with Facebook Ads or the Google +1.

PPC is going to become more of a calculated and researched endeavor that goes beyond a few key words and marketers who already think this way will have no problem integrating PPC into their strategies. (Yes you should have a strategy)

*PPC Tip –

Use social media as a tool to really get to know your audience. Separate this audience, for example your most key influencers to your least and leverage this information to create a more robust and effective email marketing campaign.