Free use of Facebook to drive high email conversion rates

Email and Facebook are both excellent places where brands can communicate with their customers and build social engagement. But does Facebook drive sales? This is a question that divides many marketers. The arguments vary according to how experienced proponents of both sides are with using Facebook for marketing purposes. The amount invested in Facebook promotions also has a strong influence on opinions.

But even if you don’t assign a huge budget to Facebook promotions, you can still use it to enhance your sales activities. Share useful information with your fans that appears in your newsletter and email marketing campaigns. Spreading your message on these multiple channels serves to reinforce the effectiveness of all of them.

Why you should show your newsletter on Facebook

There’s no doubt that Facebook is a proven platform for reaching an audience who might be interested in your offer. Statistically, Facebook is just too big to ignore:

• Worldwide, there are over 1.49 billion monthly active users which is a 13% increase year over year (Source: Facebook as of 6/30/15)
• 968 million people log onto Facebook daily for June 2015, which represents a 17% increase year over year (Source: Facebook as 4/22/15)

Facebook delivers a massive audience that you cannot ignore but just a mere presence on this social media channel isn’t enough to effectively monetize your marketing activities. Contemporary marketers use internet spaces where their customers are likely to be as the driving force of sales activities. Later they diversify lead generation activities into multiple channels and the levels of customer trust.

Pay attention to the fact that when using Facebook to build online communities around your brand, you are doing so on a platform that does not belong to you. Facebook is in charge of all changes and all the rules. On top of that, even though no one is betting on it now, one day the platform can just disappear. The lesson is that you shouldn’t put all of your marketing eggs in one online basket.

Individual email inboxes are where your brand has the best chance to break through the noise.The number of worldwide email users equals now to nearly 2.6 billion and the number of emails sent and received per day total over 205 billion. Both numbers are expected to grow. A well planned and targeting email marketing campaign is most effective in engaging and converting subscribers into paying customers.

Consumers who receive newsletters spend 138% more than those don’t get them. Click to Tweet

If you aren’t using email marketing in your business, it’s time to get started. Then get started on Facebook and encourage your fans to take the next step by joining your mailing list. Keep reading to find out how the free use of Facebook can drive high email conversion rates and make your email marketing campaigns even more effective.

Place a newsletter sign up form on your fanpage

You can use Facebook as the first point of contact and use your fanpage to build a quality list of subscribers. It doesn’t matter if someone is just visiting your fanpage, if they’re already following you - you can convince anyone who shows an interest in your brand to join your newsletter mailing list.

Make your pitch clear - you have an email marketing newsletter with great content and offers related to your brand. Joining the mailing list means getting early access to promotions and special events. Making it easy to sign up can be done for example with the Static html - Thunderpenny app.

Step by step instructions - sign up for a newsletter on Facebook

Log in to Facebook and type Static html - Thunderpenny in the search bar and click the ‘use app’ button. You will be redirected to a tab where you can create your signup form. To get started, click the green button that says “Add Static HTML to a Page”.

The application will show you a list of pages that you manage you will then be able to select the one that you want to add a newsletter sign up form to. Just mark it and click "Add Page Tab".

You will then see a simple HTML creator. This is where you can paste the code you get from your email marketing system and make your own sign up form by clicking Save & Publish.

You can generate the code you need in FreshMail by logging into your account and clicking: Subscribers and then Add list. A new list of dedicated leads from Facebook lets you easily monitor the number of signups and then send messages tailored for them.

Now go to your newly created list and click Sign up form/Sign-up form creator. This is where you can copy your code to paste into the application.

To help the conversion rate of your form, add a call to action and consent to receive marketing messages. If you know HTML coding you can complete the code yourself. If not, just click “Change app” and select Form when in Static html.

In this creator option, apart from the place where you paste the code, you also have the ability to add graphics or a CTA text.

After publishing your sign up form by clicking Save & Publish it’s time to make sure everything looks good. Go to the settings on your Facebook page and select Apps. Go to Static html - Thunderpenny and click on Edit settings. Now you can change its name and add your own pictures in a 111x74px format.

Lastly, remember to see for yourself if the sign up form is displaying properly on your page. In Apps, you can manage the order of the sections that appear according to your own preferences. We put ours just next to About section.

Done! Now everybody can join your mailing list without leaving Facebook!

Enhance your newsletter with Facebook

Here’s a great example presented by American Apparel on how to use Facebook to increase the reach and power of the content in your newsletter. It’s a classic inbound marketing strategy with consistent messages distributed over channels where customers are active, like email and Facebook.

The overall communication looks like this. First a message with the latest offer lands in inboxes.

Then graphics related to the content sent in newsletter shows up on social media.

Consistent brand communication is complimented by the ability to sign up for a newsletter directly from Facebook. The sign up form can be both found on the left column in Stay in Touch tab (as shown on the screen above) and after clicking little arrow nect to the More tab just under the cover photo. Clicking this and takes you to the cool example of how an engaging sign up form should look like:

If you're running bigger promotions, like an arrival of new clothing line, you could also extend the reach of your marketing efforts by creating a Facebook event connected to your special offer. One of the advantages of creating Facebook events is that as soon as someone takes part, it shows up on the newsfeeds of their friends and instantly turns into social proof. There’s a strong possibility that among those friends will be more fans of your brand, who can then join the event themselves or learn about it through an invitation.

Pro tip: manage your content well

It’s important to manage the content that you post on your Facebook page well in order to make sure you’re getting the most out of the online community.

• First of all, ask your fans to mark the See first option on your page. This lets them see your posts right at the top when scrolling through their newsfeeds.

• The right content at the right time - post consistent messages at the appropriate time. When you send out a newsletter, let everyone know on social media. Watch the stats from your page and pay careful attention to when your fans are online to help you establish the optimal time for your next post.
• Create original content for your social media presence. You can make it a comfortable place where you can start conversations with your fans and engage them directly.
• Remember that a picture is worth a thousand words! Plan posts and newsletters that contain well chosen, high quality graphics. This encourages fans to share your post, it show professionalism and the human side of your brand. Everybody wants to look good on social media and your fans will enthusiastically share content if it makes them look good too.

Every “like” is an opportunity!

Remember that every platform - email, Facebook, blogs, etc. - lets marketers communicate and engage with customers in different ways. Email is still the best tool for direct communication with brands and consumers still prefer it for many reasons. If you already have loyal fans on Facebook, take advantage of it and build your mailing list and social engagement at the same time!

Creating a consistent communication strategy increases your reach and builds strong brand impression that inspires trust.