Tapping into email and social addictions
Let's talk about how brands are approaching social integration in email marketing. I will be the first to admit that I (might) have an email and social media addiction. In fact, while we are on the topic, I might as well admit my addiction to digital media as whole. Once I acknowledged my condition, I did the natural thing: I Googled "addiction." According to the 12-steppers:
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over our addiction -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
And after reading Step 1, I might argue that my life has become more manageable thanks to my addiction. In fact, my friendships, especially those that are geographically distant, seem to have been strengthened through email and social media. Alas, I have an addiction and might not be seeing the whole picture clearly.
Yet, as I walk through hotels, airports, office parks, schools, soccer fields, high school football games, and any other venue where people gather it seems that we are all sharing this addiction. We are looking for connectivity with brands, people, friends, heroes, and news sources 24 hours a day. A recent study put average time spent on social media at 4.6 hours a day and email at 4.4 hours a day, with the percentage of people doping it daily at 46 percent and 72 percent respectively. No other activities came close to social media and email -- so if you can effectively combine and harness these two forces, your marketing programs should soar.
On that same note, 30 percent of brands used social sharing in their holiday campaigns last year. This year, look for social integration in email campaigns to not only skyrocket, but also to truly impact sales.
So, when it comes to brands using social media in their email marketing, which ones are doing it right? And which ones are still figuring it out? Let's take a look at programs using the social-email combination in interesting ways -- both good and bad.
