Grow Your E-mail List With Social Media

Given that e-mail marketing is one of the most effective lead generation channels, head and shoulders above social media, turning social media followers into e-mail subscribers is a marketing no-brainer. How to do it? A recent Social Media Examiner article gives some tips. First of all, set up a simple e-mail opt-in form on your social channels and make it easy for fans to subscribe to your e-mail list. On Facebook, you can dedicate a tab at the top right-hand side of your page, with an icon linked to an e-mail sign-up form. There are many different options for setting up an e-mail opt-in form, including apps from MailChimp, Constant Contact, Benchmark, JD Subra and iContact. You still have to make it desirable to join your e-mail list, however. You can offer free premium content to subscribers, for example, such as eBooks, white papers, infographics, long-form articles or newsletters. Create an e-mail form landing page for each offer and use social media to promote. Share excerpts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+, for instance, to send traffic to e-mail sign-up pages. Other incentives driving e-mail subscriptions could include a discount, free sample, or coupon. And if you host a webinar for social media followers, make sure to set up for e-mail collection. A webinar hosted on a Google hangout can share links to resource landing pages with e-mail sign-up forms, for example. Webinars hosted via programs like AnyMeeting, GoToWebinar, PGI, Ready Talk or Join Me can include an opt-in form to collect e-mails from viewers before they enter the webinar. A tried and true option for e-mail list building is to promote a contest, sweepstakes or giveaway to social media fans. There are many apps for contests, sweepstakes or giveaways on Facebook (and often other social channels), but be sure to choose one with e-mail sign-up for entry. For more detail on tactics and apps, go to http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-grow-email-list-with-social-media/