The Equation for Holiday Success: 1+1=3

Labor Day has come and gone and at the end of August, an estimated 19% of retailers had begun their holiday marketing campaigns.  Epsilon recently hosted a webinar, Socializing Your Holiday Planning 2011, aimed at helping these marketers integrate social media into their upcoming holiday campaigns while there’s still time to do so.

Social media is an engagement and retention tool for marketers.  According to a recent Pew Internet study, 65% of American adult internet users are now on social sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. 

 With this in mind, retail marketers who wish to make the most of their holiday campaigns should learn how to properly integrate their social media and email marketing programs. By using social media in conjunction with email, marketers are able to create a “1+1=3” effect; meaning by combining the two separate channels marketers can increase each individual channel’s contribution.

 Here are some ideas for integrating email and social:

• Use one channel to drive consumers to the other; feature a social media share option on your email and an email subscription link on your social media content.

• Leverage your ability to track and monitor social chatter from the social media site to help format your emails and keep the content and deals relevant.

• Always include the multiple sources of information and sharing on all channels; include all site links on any channel to ensure maximum coverage.

• Keep things “holiday.” Create holiday-specific pages on social sites and always look to add contacts to your “list.”

• Include all valuable social media channels on your targeted emails, even if they are less known by the public.

• Show social media chatter or blurbs in your emails to connect the channels.

• Promote ratings and reviews on social sites to gain deeper insight of consumer thoughts and experiences.

• Track interaction from email to social, and vice versa, to identify those utilizing the channels and how to best reach them.

• Monitor your social sites for social influencers and advocates and target them to increase engagement within the social sphere.

• Mix up the social sharing pattern; include holiday-themed icons and links to prompt consumer engagement in cross-channel communication.

Select the approach(s) that make the most sense for your business.  Whether you plan to use one of the above ideas or an idea of your own, keep in mind that during the launch of any social media channel, there must be a testing, listening and learning stage.  It is in this stage you can determine what content, message and method is most effective in reaching your target audience.  And when appropriate, make sure to integrate your marketing content into your other marketing channels to create a uniform message and a sense of continuity across the various channels.