Five golden rules for successful social sharing

Research published by Experian shows that email marketing messages shared through social networking links deliver, on average, 5 times more forwards than an email with just a single ‘forward to a friend’ link.

That’s a significant uplift, and it’s crystal clear that integrating social media into email campaigns is something we should all be doing.

But how can you make sure you’re taking advantage of that additional 24.3% reach that social media can potentially deliver?

Follow these 5 golden rules to help maximise the social network ’shareability’ of your email campaigns:

Know the social networks that your contacts and target market use
There’s no point linking your email to LinkedIn if your target market love Digg! Take some time to research the social networking habits and preferences of your target market. If in doubt, put a short online survey together, and ask them how they use social media.
Keep your messages simple
Remember, a complicated message will not be understood, read and definitely not shared! Keep the proposition in your email campaign a single-minded and understandable one.
Talk to your tribes
Address these motivators in your targeted email content, to create compelling and ‘group specific’ content that was just made for social media sharing. If your message isn’t relevant, it won't be shared.
Identify the different groups within your customer base and learn what motivates them and what makes them different from each other. Again, online surveys can help to build the picture and profiles you need.
Give your recipients a reason to share
Ask yourself, why would someone want to share your email? Does your message add value to the recipient and their friends or colleagues? Will posting your email give them kudos? Or do you have a competition or promotion for people to enter? If there’s no value to share, then you’re starting out on a weak footing.
Make it easy for recipients to post your email and for new readers to sign up
Include prominent social network links in your email template. Use dotMailer’s Add to Social Networks link to quickly choose which social networks to feature. Don't forget to include a prominent link to your subscriber page so new readers can sign up to your email list and help to build your database with relevant, engaged prospects.