If you have a Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or similar account then you might find yourself spending more time communicating with friends, family members, and colleagues through these venues rather than through more traditional methods. Social media outlets are engaging, easy to use, and convenient. Plus, they offer the flexibility of addressing more people at once.
Some people are afraid that social media marketing is a risk to e-mail marketing. However, it doesn't have to be. In fact, not only do you not have to choose between one or the other, you can even combine them for positive results. Although more and more people are using social media outlets, they are still reading their e-mail as well.
So how can a drop shipping business combine social media and e-mail marketing?
For starters, it's important to provide multiple forms of communication between your customers and your company. You can't ignore the fact that social media is being used more aggressively these days. By providing both e-mail correspondence and social media outlets, the customer can choose the form of communication that they wish to utilize.
By setting up a social media site, such as a Facebook or Myspace page, and including the link in your e-mail marketing campaigns, you are giving control to the consumer and letting them decide how to communicate with you.
When it comes to your marketing collateral, consider adding e-mail opt-in links. For example, if you post a video pertaining to your business on your Facebook page, then also ensure that there is a link to it at the end of the video so that people are able to opt in to your subscription list if they desire.
You can also use your status updates or bulletins to inform "fans" and "friends" of your upcoming newsletter which is available through your e-mail subscription list. This can help pique their interest and hopefully make them want to subscribe to the list in order to read it.
So why not just post the newsletter as a blog entry, note, or bulletin? You can, of course, but there are some drawbacks to that. For one thing, if you tend to do a lot of posting the newsletter could get lost in the shuffle and people might have trouble finding it. If you send it through an e-mail, however, then your readers will be able to save it and refer to it when they want to.
Flexibility is the key when combining the two forms of marketing. Keep in mind that not every member on your e-mail subscription list will have a presence on a social networking site so you don't want to exclude them. On the other hand, you still want to cater to those that do.
Part 7: Promote Drop Ship Business
This is part 7 of 7.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading!
