For those of you who feel like you have a good grip on the basics of using social feeds in email campaigns, you might also be thinking about other creative ideas. So far we've shown you detailed ideas for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and blog feeds in emails. Now, we'd like to juice your creativity with 10 more bonus use case examples.
Use Case 1: The “Hashtag Hero”
You can use hashtags to your advantage, filtering your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds to pull in whatever relevant content you like. This can take many di fferent forms and acts as a way to segment your social content, just like you segment your email list. The world is your oyster!
.
Use Case 2: The “Make Them Work For It Coupon”
You are a business off ering discounts to customers. But instead of just giving a discount out, as you normally do, use your coupon as an exercise to gather email addresses and get people following you on diff erent social channels. Put half the discount code in a Facebook or Instagram post, and the other half in your welcome email, and then mention this in your post. To get that discount, your subscribers will have to check out your social media pages, and your followers will have to sign up for your email list.
Use Case 3: The “You’ll Never Believe What Happened Next”
You've probably seen articles with sensationalist headlines claiming “This happened, but you will never believe what happened next!” How can you do that for your business? Well, include the teaser or first part of a story on social media, such as Facebook. Then add a CTA that says “Read the rest in tomorrow’s email.” Those curious enough to want to know what you’re talking about will sign up for your list. The next day, be sure to pull the Facebook post into email, with the rest of the story included below it.
Use Case 4: The “What’s Worth Visiting Right Now”
You might be a national park or a country garden wanting to showcase what’s in bloom so that your engaged subscribers know when to visit to see the wildflowers or the tulips. Post these pictures daily on Instagram, and include a dynamic Instagram feed in your emails with a CTA, such as “What’s In Bloom?” Then all your fans will know when their favorite flowers are blooming.
Use Case 5: The “School Timetable Conundrum”
You are a school, and you likely have multiple sports teams and extracurricular activities for each grade. You also probably have diff erent email lists for each parent/pupil, delivered on a monthly cadence with the appropriate schedules. You can simplify this by listing all your timetables for each grade on separate blogs, each with its own RSS feed (yes, it sounds unorthodox!). Then add dynamic blog blocks to your email templates once. This means that every month, your emails will pull in the correct information for the respective email lists. The best thing is that you won’t have to update anything other than the blogs; the emails populate themselves!
Use Case 6: The “It’s Like Being At The Event With You”
You are at New York Fashion Week (works for any event), sending a daily email out to your audience to give them the low down. At the same time, you’re updating your Instagram feed in real time. If you add a dynamic Instagram feed to your email, you can literally show what’s hot right now, as someone opens an email.
Use Case 7: The “Sherlock Holmes”
You are a zoo, and you want to create a puzzle for your customers to solve. Every day, for six days, post a clue on Instagram about an animal. People should post a picture of the animal they think it is to #ZooGuessWho. Then you can send an email on day seven, with the six images from the Instagram feed, the correct answer, and the name of the winner.
Use Case 8: The “Jack Sparrow”
You are wanting to start a treasure hunt for your audience in your local area. Send an email telling them when the treasure hunt starts and where, with a picture pulled from your Instagram saying “The First Clue Will Appear Here.” Then, as people move around and solve the clues, you can update your Instagram, and everyone sees the next clue in their original email.
Use Case 9: The “Why We Love Summer”
You can insert a call to action in an email saying “Send us your favorite #SummerMoment.” Then include an Instagram block in that email to feature your best user-generated content sent to that hashtag. This will encourage more people to participate than just the CTA alone.
Use Case 10: The “Multi-Channel Announcement”
You post on social media, telling your followers that you will be making a big announcement in your email on the following day. Deliver one part on Facebook and the other part only in the email. However, be sure to include a dynamic Facebook block in the email, so subscribers can see the entire message.
Go on, try it out now
By now, we hope you’re as convinced as we are that you don’t have to choose between email or social media. Instead, you can enhance your email campaigns and leverage your social investment with AVARI social blocks for email.
It’s the best solution for your most engaging content to reach the largest audience. AVARI makes it easy for you to maximize the value of your social content, saves you time, and keeps your emails fresh, all in real time, for the greatest possible relevance.
