Your company is likely to run a number of traditional marketing activities, as well as social media marketing activities. But do both work seamlessly together, or separately in silos?
Social media is increasingly important to businesses. However, by making it work with all of your other existing marketing elements and forming a complete, integrated marketing strategy, you can achieve much better results!
This post takes a look at 5 key ways that your traditional marketing can actually work to help your social media channels:
1: Website
Icons – Raise awareness of your social media accounts by adding icons to your website. Make sure they are clearly visible, preferably at the top of each page. Also test that they click through to the correct site. For an example, take a look at the ‘Follow Me’ section here.
Widgets – A widget is a small application which can be added to a web page and carries out limited functionality. Twitter provides a popular widget, where users can display their latest tweets, providing website visitors with more information. Here's an example of a ‘Latest Tweets’ section here.
Pages – To promote your social media channels further, why not set up a dedicated web page. You could provide a full list of your accounts and provide information on why customers should follow them. Dell is a company which does this very well. Take a look at their social media page here.
Panels/Banners – If your website offers the functionality, why not add panels or banners to add even greater visibility of your social media channels. These are larger than icons and can include text as well as images, making them more eye-catching. Take a look at the right-hand side of the page in this example.
2: E-mails
Does your business have an up-to-date customer database which you send emails out to? These customers have already shown an interest in your company, so promote your social channels to them too:
Icons – Similar to your website, add social media icons to your email to drive awareness of your accounts as well as traffic.
Panel – If you have different sections within your email, dedicate one to social media, providing more information on why customers should follow you.
Dedicated email – Feeling more adventurous? Create a dedicated social media email. Include information on why customers should follow you though, rather than just telling them to ‘Like’ your accounts. This type of email would work really well if you had an offer which was only available to fans, or if you are running a competition solely via social media. Take a look at this example email.
3: online Articles
Do you write press releases which are then distributed across the Internet? Make sure each press release lists your social media channels. This is the perfect way to create even more awareness of your accounts and grow your audience further.
4. Printed Collaterals
Don’t forget offline marketing! Make sure your social media channels are clearly visible on each of your collaterals.
- Pre-sale - having your accounts visible on brochures and leaflets can lead readers to more information as well as positive reviews from customers.
- After sale - having your social channels visible on receipts and business cards may prompt customers to follow you, building up your captured audience. It may also encourage them to leave their own feedback which may influence other potential customers to purchase in the future.
5. Internally
It’s important not to forget the power of internal promotion. Although your staff work for you, when they follow, their friends see and may follow you too, helping to drive brand awareness and generate a larger audience.
Add social media buttons to your Intranet site and make them clear on any other internal documents such as newsletters. Also make sure staff add them to their email signature. Emails go to clients and customers, so it’s a perfect, non-intrusive way of reminding people of your social accounts.