Frederic Gonzalo’s Blog

How Facebook and Email marketing really are alike

Over the past two weeks, I have been attending a great web conference titled Facebook Success Summit, along with some other 1,500 attendees from around the world. Now, there are so many presentations that I have yet to catch up with, and so little time for me to blog in my own free time to begin with that I cannot fathom the thought of even trying to to share all that I’ve learned so far.

Nevertheless, I believe the presentation made by @JayBaer will ring true and is very pertinent to many marketing practitioners, specially in the tourism and travel industry. His presentation was titled “Killer integration of Facebook and Email”, and here were some of the key highlights:

  • According to a recent study by DDB, 84% of Facebook page fans are already those brands’ customers.
  • Facebook marketing and Email marketing are more similar than we think: in both cases, you require opt-in (or a like) to engage and remain top-of-mind.
  • Metrics for F-marketing and E-marketing are also similar. Names are different, but they measure the same customer behaviors:
    • Email subscribe = Facebook like
    • Email unsubscribe = Facebook unsubscribe
    • Email open = Facebook impression – or “People are talking about you” in the newest FB version
    • Email clicks = Facebook feedback (likes & comments)
    • Email forwards = Facebook shares
  • Scheduling is important! Use email time of day and time of week testings to optimize Facebook status updates. In other words, try evenings and weekends, you may be surprised by the results! You may want to synch results from email performances with Facebook status update scheduling.
  • A company’s goal should be to build a “touch point corral” around your best customers, whereby you seek more than one method of contact: email, Facebook, twitter, SMS, etc.
  • Have an email opt-in tab on your Facebook page – great example of Convince and Convert page.
  • When someone registers by email to your newsletter, and you send out a confirmation email, why not ask them to “like” you on Facebook? Hey, they’re already in the mood 🙂
  • Use social functions in your emails, to better segment your audience. Not only with Facebook, but also Twitter, your blog, Flickr, Youtube, etc. You will find lists of advocates, in particular in social networks.
  • Integrate messages across channels. A successful post on Facebook can also work via email, and vice versa. It’s not about being redundant on both channels since, like Jay Baer mentions, don’t assume everyone reads 100% of your newsletter content AND everybody saw your post in their newsfeed! Not likely.
  • Try different subject lines on emails, and see if results apply on Facebook ads headlines. Or try with images, seeing which get better click results, then use that image in your Facebook ad.

Well, listening to Jay’s presentation certainly got me to “like” the Convince and Convert page on Facebook. Now let’s see if he can keep me engaged for a while… 😉

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