Trick question. What is more valuable? A “Like” on Facebook or an Email Opt-in?

Answer: They’re both valuable.

The main goal of marketing for every business or organization is to get your message out. And even better to have that message ACTED upon. This is marketing and the idea of marketing, at its core, is to create a RESPONSE to your message. You want someone to do something . . . Like you page, Download a paper, Donate to your cause. Or how about actually buying a product or service?

Whether we get a prospect to click Like, Opt-in or any other interaction, you are priming the pump on engagement. But to do this on a regular basis you need to create an organized strategy. The best strategies start small. You need to create a specific and measurable objective. Do you want to sell 40 widgets this month? Do you want to increase attendance to your Lunch-and-Learn by 25{a693e3da8ed473a832134816c07ef76fbff43db3efb90ebffcf0f1dc571402e9}? Do you have a specific target level for donations?

Now to the real challenge. You need to create the campaign. Are you going to do an Email campaign or a Social Media campaign? Trick question. You use them both. Email & Social Media Marketing go hand-in-hand. They should each support the other. Email campaigns are amplified by Social Media support. Social Media campaigns drive people back to grow your email list for future deals.

Picking the right Social Media channel is important and is a blog by itself, but in short, you select the Social Media channel based on what you want them to do and where most of your customers happen to be. However in the end, email is still the best way to get your message heard and Social Media is the best way to get your message spread.

And the final part? Measure your results. Look at the data at the end of the campaign. If you had the ability to do A/B testing, what worked and why? What was your open rate? How many people shared the message? How many new email subscribers did you get? How many new Likes? How close did you come to your objective? What worked? What didn’t work? Now make adjustments and try again.

There are a lot of tools out there to help you with each of these aspects. Some are free, most have some sort of fee tied to it. There are also multiple classes and seminars available from the Small Business Administration, SCORE, and your local Small Business Development Centers. Constant Contact and I work with all these organizations to offer free seminars on Email & Social Media Strategies, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Event Marketing, and more. Find a class near you and take some time to learn to grow your business. Here is a link to the next classes I am teaching.

After you have tried a class, come back here and leave a tip on what you learned for the next reader. Oh, and be sure to share this blog on your Social Media channels. I sure would like to grab a few more Likes and a half-dozen Opt-ins.

Tom Brown
Social Media Marketing Specialist
Media Barker