How Marketing Software With Social Features Can Increase ROI
How Marketing Software With Social Features Can Increase ROI:
Marketers hear a lot about the importance of integrating social media with traditional software-based marketing tactics such as landing pages and email. In the past, integration was difficult because marketing software platforms didn’t combine social networking with other features.
The result was a fragmented experience for both marketers and their audience. For example, marketers could email a webinar invitation and tweet the link to the registration page, but there was no easy way to connect social and traditional forms of digital communication. In the same way, an interested recipient could click through an email to register for the webinar, but they had to manually copy the registration link and paste it into a status update if they wanted to share it.
Hard work. Too many gaps. Missed opportunities for interaction.
Now, the features in many marketing automation platforms are making it very easy to add social touches to every aspect of a typical campaign. The benefits are obvious: good campaign content gets a big boost through viral distribution, more engagement – and more leads.
I recently experienced an interesting integration of social media into emails and landing pages when I received an invitation to a Marketo webinar. The social sharing features were so effective, I decided to share highlights of how their platform works.
1) Webinar invitation email
Feature: social icons in the email footer. After being enticed by the successful subject line – “Tomorrow’s Live Webinar | Sophisticated Tracking of Social ROI,” I opened the email and discovered social icons in the footer of the email. This made it easy to visit Marketo’s social networks, such as their Twitter account (@marketo). What were they talking about today?
Benefit: credibility. Those small icons have big impact because they say, “We’re serious about being available. And we have something to say. Come check us out.”
2) Webinar registration process
Feature 1: social sign-in. Those interested in registering had the option of using their Twitter accounts to sign up. In this case, kudos to Marketo’s interface designers for clearly explaining to registrants what the social app could access and what it could not.
Benefit: insights into the real size of your network. Your prospects and clients have their own networks. Insights into their level of influence will help you market to your total potential network, not just the known individuals in your CRM.
Feature 2: social sharing of webinar registration. This simple but powerful tactic closes the huge gap between reaching just the person in your database, as opposed to reaching his network.
Benefit: acquisition of new names for your database. Give your network something worth sharing, and get repaid with more people in your network!
3) Viewing the webinar on-demand
Feature: social sharing of the on-demand webinar. Like many busy registrants, I couldn’t attend the live event. So I used the event follow-up email to click through and view the recording. The landing page featured two opportunities to share the webinar.
The first social sharing opportunity was a prominent icon bar right at the top of the landing page.
The second social sharing opportunity was a pop-up that traveled as I scrolled down the page.
Benefit: better ROI on your investment in content marketing. Good content isn’t cheap – it takes talented people, time to create it and a commitment to research. All that activity costs you in the form of labor. When your customers can easily share your content on demand, your investment gets greater return.
Did this quick review of social media integrated into the software used for emails and landing pages help you? What other features have you seen in use?
—Bonus: Watch the webinar
I enjoyed the webinar featured in this blog post – “Measuring Social Marketing: Finding True ROI Through Peer-to-Peer Measurement.” It features practical examples of the value of social media for demand generation, along with interesting glimpses of Marketo’s social marketing tool.
Deborah Anne Gibbs (10 Posts)This monthly Marketing Automation and Social Media column is contributed by Deborah Gibbs. Passionate about product marketing, lead generation and marketing automation, Deborah has over 10 years, experience in communications and program management. Her marketing experience includes a wide range of industries, including high tech, automotive and medical devices. She is Pragmatic Marketing certified and, for fun, enjoys jazz, Portuguese and anything Brazilian.
TOPIC: Social Media and Marketing Automation
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