It’s no longer enough for small businesses to focus on a single marketing channel — especially if they want to keep up with smart consumers who shop, search for information, and engage across multiple channels and media.
In 2020 alone, these customers spent over $350 billion (with sales expected to hit over $575 billion in 2023) thanks to business owners using multichannel marketing strategies.
You, too, can be one of these business owners raking in revenue if you learn to combine the strength of email marketing with other marketing channels, and this article will show you how.
But first, let’s consider some of the dangers of relying on a single marketing channel.
Why You Shouldn’t Rely on a Single Marketing Channel
One is the most dangerous number in business.
One source of customers. One marketing channel. One supplier source.
What happens when that “one” fails? It definitely wouldn’t look too good for your business.
Looking at how marketing has changed over the years, it’s safe to say fortune hasn’t always smiled on those who focused on a single marketing channel.
For example, it’s usually common after any Google algorithm update for websites to lose a ton of traffic and have a shake in their search rankings. During a major core update in May 2020, SEMrush’s Sensor detected a 9.4 volatility score out of 10.
There have also been accounts of Facebook shutting down groups and pages, even if the page owners have spent and earned millions on Facebook.
The common theme with these single channels is that they are usually paid or 3rd-party channels where you have little or no control over how things work.
What to Do Instead: Build Your Own Audience
It’s hard to grow a business without an audience as you need people to buy your products and refer you to others within their network.
However, many businesses go about building an audience the wrong way.
Many chose to build on “rented space” where they have little or no control over their audience. Some others prefer to consistently spend a lot on ads to build a paid audience — an audience that’ll likely disappear when the ads stop.
So what should you do instead?
Build an owned audience of loyal customers.
What’s an Owned Audience?
An owned audience is a group of people who have shared vital contact information (like email addresses, names, and phone numbers) with you and have permitted you to contact them until they ask you not to.
Unlike paid or unowned audiences, you don’t need to pay or use a third-party channel to contact this audience.
Advantages of an Owned Audience
Here are four reasons why you should consider building your own audience.
You Spend Less Money
While you might still need to pay for the email platform that helps you gather vital contact information about your audience, its cost is dwarfed by what you’ll pay if you choose to run ads.
An Owned Audience is Likely Interested in Your Business
Unless you buy an email list — which we don’t recommend — most of the people in your owned audience are already interested in your product and service. This is because they chose to fill out their details on your landing page or opt-in form to join your list.
High Return on Investment
For every dollar you spend on building your own audience (or email list), your return is $40 — no other type of audience or channel comes close.
It’s Not Affected by Algorithm Changes
Since you’re in charge of your owned audience, you’re not affected by any algorithm changes or social media outages.
Uncomplicated and cost-effective.
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How to Combine Social Media with Email Marketing
You’ve seen why you shouldn’t have a single channel and also why it’s essential to own your audience.
So how can you build your own audience while reaching your customers on multiple platforms? You can do that by combining email with social media marketing.
Using Social Media to Grow Your Email Subscribers
Here are some tested ways to use social media to grow your subscriber list:
- Make it easy for your social fans and followers to subscribe to your email list. Most email clients have an app that can be linked to your social media posts letting fans seamlessly subscribe.
- Post snippets of your exclusive long-form newsletter content on your social media accounts and encourage followers to sign up to see the rest, or use hyperlinks to drive them directly to your website for more.
- Offer your social followers an incentive to add their names to your mailing list. Depending on your audience, you can send them from your social account to a landing page for a free e-book download, a contest or sweepstakes entry, a free sample, or a discount on a future purchase. You can easily design professional, high-converting landing pages with iContact.
Remember to optimize your subscriber opt-in pages for mobile.
Using Email to Grow Your Social Media Following
Part of social media’s genius is its ability to create “sticky” customers, ones who stay with your brand and keep coming back for more. The emphasis is on building a long-term, engaged relationship on social media. As a result, it’s also important to leverage an email list to grow a social audience.
Use these strategies to put your email list to work to grow your social audience:
- The most obvious first step is to add social sharing buttons to your email newsletters.
- When you onboard new subscribers, include an email in your welcome series, including social share buttons for all your different social media channels, and invite them to follow you. Make this a colorful, high-impact email.
Conclusion
It’s dangerous to rely on a single marketing channel — even more so a paid or “rented” channel. Instead, work to build your own audience and combine it with other channels to extend your marketing reach, acquire new customers, and grow your revenue.
To get started with building your own audience, sign up for iContact for free.
