Social media marketing is about people and the journey from stranger to fan is built on rapport. As Dale Carnegie said, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

The toughest challenge in maintaining a blog and email marketing campaign is content, but take a strategic approach and think about them together: write it once and get two channels for the price of one!

A blog is the hub of your SEO and social campaigns while email marketing is the best channel to communicate with your subscribers. Your human readers as well as Google both love blogs but how best to drive traffic to the blog and get followers than with regular email campaigns?

Your blog should include current news, case studies, tips and best practices, industry updates, video testimonials or tutorials, and should entice readers to engage, comment and share. These same types of content are ideal for your newsletter. Why not use the newsletter as a roundup of various monthly blog posts where the newsletter has a few teaser articles with click-thrus to read more? Once the readers click to the blog they can engage with other related blog articles and subscribe for more. Include sufficient content in the teaser of your email newsletter so that readers understand the main idea of the article while the blog elaborates.

Integration and coordination of your blog and newsletter content strategies also leads to a positive branding impact. Focus on educating rather than selling. The newsletter and blog will nurture a broader relationship that leverages your branding with subscribers as well as prospects searching for keywords in your industry. Once you analyze which articles your email readers are clicking on you can adjust your content strategy accordingly, across the board.

Use the first few sentences from the blog article in your newsletter and link it up to the remaining content at your blog, or use an RSS link to automate the process. With traffic pointing to your blog, optimized website, or strategic landing page, the combination of blogging and email will continue to work for you month after month.

Blogging and emails together can transform strangers into fans. By maintaining the relationship, you will give your subscribers what they want and receive what you want in return!

If you need help setting up your blog or email campaign or integrating the two, give us a holler.