The links between email marketing and social media are becoming increasingly stronger. The ways in which you are able to use your social profiles to boost your email marketing is well documented, but there are now ways that you can use your email marketing list within social media.

How does it work?

Facebook call it “custom audiences”, Twitter call it “tailored audiences”. They’re the same thing – using your own email list data to create advertising campaigns within social media. They’re very simple; you simply upload your existing database (emails only required), Facebook or Twitter will then match your database with its own. Any of the emails in their own system that match yours form part of your “audience”. You can then use this audience to create a standard Facebook advert.

But why would I want to use Social Media to advertise to my email list – I already do

There are many reasons why you might want to do this. The first is to try and strengthen and grow awareness for your social channels. It’s also a good way of marketing to people that may have lapsed on your emails. Maybe they’ve unsubscribed – if you’ve still got that old data you can plug it in. Either way, however engaged some of your audience might be in your emails, there are others that could have become too accustomed to them  – seeing it in on a new platform can be a big help.

What can I advertise to them?

This is, perhaps, another big benefit. When you send an email you’re pretty limited in what you can display. Images will work – but unless you’re on Gmail they won’t display by default. Videos can only be linked to, not played automatically. Also, if you’ve not made the progression into responsive email design yet (you really should have) then this gives you a platform to easily distribute mobile friendly content. Images are displayed full size, and videos can be played at the click of a button.

How can I use social media to boost my email list?

This, really, could be the topic of a much longer blog. But in short, social media is a great way of gathering new leads. One really strong way to do that is to run a competition on Facebook – where to enter someone has to give you their email address. A fair trade-off and you have someone to market to via email. Simple and effective, it’s a great way of growing your database without outlaying that much and from the user’s point of view, it’s a nice way to say thanks by giving them the chance to win something nice.

Overall, there are many benefits to advertising to your email list via social media. It’s a fine way of “remarketing” to your audience and using a popular/alternative method of doing so.