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© ExactTarget All rigts reserved
1
Expanding Te Reac o Email Troug Social Netorks
 What’s Inside?
Page 1
 Setting te Stage
Page 2
 Insigts rom te Pioneers
Page 3
 See Social Media in Action
Page 4
 Summary
Page 5
 ExactTarget Social Forard
whITEPAPER
Expanding te Reac o Email TrougSocial Netorks
 Setting the Stage
Social media sites represent the newest gateway to the Internet. Google holds a secure positionas the web search engine with the largest reach both globally and in the US, and Yahoo! maintainsits number two position. However, social networking giants Facebook and YouTube are gainingground on these traditional gateways, and their global reach is growing signifcantly aster than theirpredecessors. As data rom Alexa Internet shows,
users spend more time on social networks inan average day than they do on major portals like Google and Yahoo!
(Figure 1).Given the global reach, rapid adoption, and high engagement, social media sites havemarketers salivating at the potential these environments oer to engage with customers andprospects. The challenge is how to best acilitate
 meaningful
interactions. As noted in ExactTarget’s
 2008 Channel Preference Survey 
, consumers are reluctant to invitemarketers into these environments. Why? Because they don’t want to see another personalcommunication channel overrun with irrelevant messages rom commercial entities. Thegood news is that there are numerous examples o brands that have developed extensiveollowings in these environments. This proves that there are opportunities or marketers andconsumers to interact on social networking sites—i done so appropriately.
 
 Social Media as an Email List Growth Tactic
 As part o a joint research project between Ball State University, the Email Marketer’s Club,and ExactTarget, the
 2009 Email Marketing List Growth Study 
conducted a survey o 351 emailmarketers and their colleagues in March 2009. Survey results showed
a signifcant increase inmarketers’ intent to integrate email and social media programs in 2009
. One tactic that hassparked the imagination o marketers is letting email subscribers share messages with their socialnetworks in hopes o driving increased email program registrations.In 2008, 13% o email marketers surveyed attempted to grow their email programs through theuse o social sharing links included in email messages.
This number is set to explode in 2009with 46% o marketers planning to use social sharing capabilities in the coming year—representing nearly a ourold increase.
 
 
Expanding Te Reac o Email Troug Social Netorks.ExactTarget.com
© ExactTarget All rigts reserved
 
Global Reach 3 MonthChange Time on Site (min/day) Google 30.6% 9.9% 8.3   Yahoo! 26.4% 0.7% 10.1   YouTube 17.6% 4.8% 23.4  Facebook  16.6% 32.3% 25.4 
Source: Alexa.com as of April, 6, 2009 
Figure 1
 
 
To date, the results rom social media “pioneers” are mixed. Business-to-business marketersreport signifcantly more success sharing to social networks as a list growth tactic thanconsumer-ocused marketers, especially in terms o quantity o new subscribers. Business-to-consumer marketers report that while the number o new subscribers acquired throughsocial media sites is low compared to other list growth tactics, the quality o new subscribersis very high. So while many marketers are seduced by the large numbers,
pioneers haveound social media marketing to be a quality over quantity list growth tactic.
The distinct experiences o B2B and B2C marketers may be explained in what we alreadyknow about the mindset o participants in dierent social networks. For example, whileLinkedIn intentionally acilitates business relationships—and thereby encourages commercialinteraction—Facebook ocuses on personal relationships where commercial messages aremore likely to be considered intrusive.
Insights from the Social Media Pioneers 
B2C marketers shouldn’t be discouraged by the results o this survey. In recent interviews,we asked several social media pioneers to share what they’d learned in the past year. Thesemarketers were optimistic about their experiences with social media and oered severaltips or those who are considering integrating social media within their email marketingprograms.Currently, there are very ew established best practices, so trying new things is the keyto learning what works and what doesn’t.Consumers are sensitive to “marketing speak”; thereore, stay away rom traditionalmarketing lingo and ocus on relevance and authenticity.Social networks represent a distinct audience and mindset. As a result, organizationsshould think about this medium dierently than traditional marketing channels. Developunique strategies specifcally or social networks, keeping in mind that users engage ineach network dierently.Consider broadening your defnition o success. Traditional direct marketing metrics arenot necessarily a good measure o success in social media.
© ExactTarget All rigts reserved
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Expanding Te Reac o Email Troug Social Netorks
1.2. 3. 4.
 Want more ideas?
Tis itepaper contains just a e ote key fndings rom our upcoming
2009 Email Marketing List Growth Study.
I you’re looking or more ideas on o togro your subscriber list, atc or teull itepaper coming in May.
0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%
20082009
Planning for'09Started in '08,Discontinuing in'09Started in '08,Continuing in'09
46%13%
88% o toseo used tacticin ‘08 ill con-tinue in ‘09
Grot o Social Media Integration as a List Grot Tactic
367% increase in %o email marketersplanning to integrateit social media
 
 See Social Media in Action
Several ExactTarget clients have used social media tactics to not only build their subscriberlists, but also help establish their brand. Check out the examples below to see social mediamarketing in action. As the world’s largest independent new and used bookstore,Powell’s Books recently experimented with social mediaby driving people to their Facebook page. Sam Whitmore,online marketing developer or Powell’s Books says, “First,we ocused on getting people to become Facebook ans byincluding links to our an page on our website. Now that we have built our an base we havestarted to send updates inviting people to participate in exclusive programs that require themto register on our site.” According to Whitmore, the company even capitalized on a majorholiday as a way to get in touch with customers. He says, “For Valentine’s Day, we sent anupdate to all our Facebook ans with a $5 oer that required people to register in order to getthe oer. It was a huge success.” The makers o Carmex® lip balm, Carma Labs, launcheda social media campaign in November 2008—called MyCarmex Kiss—in conjunction with relaunching their website.On mycarmexkiss.com users are able to upload a photo thatcan be animated with dierent “kisses” and orwarded on toriends. The site gives users a choice o how and where theywant to send their “kiss”—either through email, text message, or via a social site. According to Carma Labs President Paul Woelbing, the majority o kisses are sent to riendsthrough email. However, social networks have given the campaign signifcant exposure. So,while the actions o a ew visitors who posted their kiss to social networks helped drive trafcto the site, the majority o people preer to share the experience through email. At the start o the campaign, Carmex had a database o 3,000 email subscribers. By Valentine’sDay, three months later, Carmex had over 30,000 subscribers. The 10-old increase wasdriven exclusively through the Carmex Kiss campaign. The key? Giving visitors a choice. “Wewant visitors to share the experience with their riends, but we don’t want to orce them to usea channel they are uncomortable with,” says Woelbing. “By oering visitors choices, we arelearning a lot about the dynamics o integrating email, social media, and text messaging—namely that they complement each other very well.”
© ExactTarget All rigts reserved
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Expanding Te Reac o Email Troug Social Netorks
“we ant visitors to sare te experienceit teir riends, but e don’t ant toorce tem to use a cannel tey areuncomortable it. By oering visitorscoices, e are learning a lot about tedynamics o integrating email, socialmedia, and text messaging—namelytat tey complement eac oter veryell.”— Paul woelbingPresident, Carma Labs
Figure 2:
My Carmex Kiss Campaign website
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