Implement Social Marketing best practices
The video below walks you through 3 key strategies for turning social engagement into smarter, more personalized marketing. Watch the video first, then follow the detailed action items below to put each strategy into practice.
VIDEO
BEST PRACTICE 1Split your welcome flow
One of the most effective ways to make a welcome series feel personal is to split the flow based on how someone signed up and how they engaged in your Social Auto-reply.
Here’s how to do so:
- Add a conditional split to your flow to create a path for subscribers who joined your list via Instagram.
- Add in messages that directly reference that touchpoint, acknowledging where they came from and speaking to the context in which they discovered your brand.
- In the other path (for those who joined elsewhere), you can have a default set of messages that do not specifically mention your Instagram campaign, but could introduce your social channels with links back to Instagram or other sites.
Update your VIP segments
As you begin using social data to build segments, an easy first win is to add to the segments you already have. Choose 1 or 2 core segments as a starting point, such as ‘Recently Engaged' or ‘VIP’. For this example, let’s discuss how to enrich your VIP segment with real-time social behavior, capturing another avenue for loyalty-driven engagement.
Here’s how to do so:
- Access an existing VIP segment (or build a new one from scratch).
- Add a new criteria to the segment that relates to how your top shoppers engage on social; for instance, “Has tagged your brand 3 or more times.”
- Save your segment and monitor its growth under this expanded definition.
Do you not already have a VIP segment built? Bookmark our Help Center article for step-by-step instructions to get started.
Loop in social for your next omnichannel campaign
Social segments can shape how you schedule campaigns. Use social engagement as your compass for what to send and who is invested in that topic.
A practical approach is to start your overarching campaign on social first, then broaden your reach by sending campaigns across your owned channels (e.g., email, text, push) to cast a wider net and customize what someone receives based on whether they have already shown interest on social.
Here’s how to do so:
- Start your campaign (e.g., a sitewide holiday sale) with social media posts, perhaps launching a holiday-specific auto-reply.
- Create a segment of those who have interacted with you on Instagram recently but have not purchased.
- Create unique campaign paths for those who have engaged on Instagram but not yet shopped (with content that speaks to their engagement) vs. those who have not interacted on social (providing full context).
Bonus tip: Use dynamic show/hide logic in email content to display different blocks of content to specific segments. For example, show an 'Instagram community' banner or exclusive offer only to a segment of subscribers who joined your list via social.
Wondering where to begin? Pick 1 of these best practices to implement this week. Even a single conditional split or a segment built on social data can make a meaningful difference to how your subscribers experience your brand!