Your social media profiles allow multi-channel communication: you put your message through but might get some unwanted noise when your subscribers engage in conversations. With emails however, the contact is more intimate, you can address your visitors privately. The message is to be seen by their eyes only. Social media and email marketing work differently, so you should try to get the best out of the mix. Here are some do’s and don’ts of combining email marketing with your social media strategies.

Don’t be redundant

A lot of companies start a Twitter account, a Facebook profile, put up a mailing list then share the exact same bits of information across all media. Give your visitors reasons why they should subscribe to each of your platforms. If you post an article on your blog, copy/paste it to your Facebook, email it to your subscribers and link to it from Twitter then you might get some extra exposure but it won’t help users who are in your mailing list and follow you on any of the social platforms.

Give your visitors a way to instantly engage in an activity

Focus on engagement rather than simply putting a message through. People read email more often than they log on to social media profiles, so backing up your social media campaigns with a few cleverly designed emails might do magic in terms of subscribers base. You don’t have to post all-new content in your newsletters (even though it would be nice if you could). Post snippets of your best performing articles and link back to the originals. Tease your readers and ask them to perform a certain action. Email them and ask to get a conversation started.

Get the snowball rolling

Use your email list to build awareness, invite your subscribers to visit your social media profiles, then use your Facebook and Twitter to get more subscribers to your email list. Tweet about your mailing list and email about your posts on Facebook. Use the multiple channels to build more buzz around your business, but remember not to be redundant.

Use the right technology

You will need to track goals. Just as you track conversions on your social media campaigns (you do track them, right?) don’t just send the newsletters out in thin air and hope for results. Monitor your campaigns: see how many people opened the email and how many of them clicked through your links. Remember to monitor demographics if it’s important for your goals.

Social media and email marketing is not a matter of either-or. Combine both and you will get the best out of both worlds.