For the first time in many years, the importance of email marketing became crystal clear when Facebook and it’s counterparts experienced an extended outage…6 hours to be exact. In that time, Facebook lost a LOT of money and the world was forced to disconnect. A lot of people said they enjoyed the break. However, many business owners were panicking because social media is the main form of communication they use for business.
Whether you enjoyed the time off social or it put you in a full on tailspin, this outage made one thing crystal clear…if you’re a business owner you CAN’T rely on social as your primary means of communicating with your clients. You need to be engaging via email and other means.
So let’s talk about what to do instead.
Social Media Should Be A PIECE of Your Marketing Pie
Facebook and other social media platforms should only be a piece of your marketing pie. I highly recommend you have multiple ways to communicate with your clients including email and text. If you really want to make sure your message is heard, you should be communicating often and consistently across multiple platforms so you aren’t forced to rely on social media for communicating. What does this mean? Let me explain.
Have a Plan
If you are running a promotion, launching a new service or doing anything that you want to make sure gets in front of your clients, create a plan to communicate it. Don’t expect to do one social post and have your book filled. It’s not going to happen and if social is down, or vanishes tomorrow, this strategy will get you in big trouble! Getting clients to take action requires multiple communications across multiple channels.
When there is something important you want to promote, plan to communicate via:
- Social Media
- In-Studio Signage
- Text Alerts
- Your Website
- Your Team
- Digital Advertising
- Snail Mail (if it’s a really big thing!)
Plan Communications Over a Period of Time
Again, don’t plan to do a post on social and expect big things to happen. Instead, plan to communicate your message multiple times across multiple channels over a period of time. Doing this will give you an opportunity to get your message in front of your clients several times.
One of the best, most cost-effective ways to communicate often is email! If you’ve worked with me you know I’m all about creating and growing a segmented email list that allows you to talk to your clients any time you want by making your way to their inbox. The beauty of having a good email list is that you OWN IT! With social media, you don’t own the platform. And, you have ZERO control over when and how your message gets heard. Once you put up a post, it’s up to the social media Gods (aka the algorithm) to decide who sees that post.
With email, you can send communications when ever you need to and know who they are going to. This allows you to tailor your messaging, check to see who’s read it and who hasn’t then resend it if need be. Email gives you far more control over your message then social.
I’m Not Hating on Social
I’m not hating on social media. It’s very important to small businesses and social media management is one of the largest services I offer. It can also be a great tool. All I’m saying is, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, especially when you don’t own or control said basket.