While marketers have historically viewed bottom-of-funnel relationships as the key to revenue, this is changing with the potential for consumers to discover and purchase from a brand in one swipe on social.
As social becomes a sales channel in its own right, it’s even more crucial for brands to integrate social data with their CRM system, where sales have traditionally lived. Bridging the two worlds will give marketers a more unified view of customers, which can power better targeting, more resonant messaging and richer relationships, all while driving a new revenue stream.
Treat direct messages as the new inbox
It’s not just social commerce that brands should think about when looking for gaps in their mid-funnel marketing. A specific feature of many social media platforms is quickly becoming a verified marketing channel: direct messaging.
Brands should think about integrating direct messaging on social as a touch in their existing CRM efforts. With Gen Z using email less than any other generation, DMs are becoming the new inbox. For this to be successful, brands must invest time, infrastructure and creative energy into applying the processes and rigor of CRM to social to connect with their audience in a new way.
New tools and integrations are enabling brands to scale their direct message marketing across platforms with automation. For instance, you could set up a campaign where everyone who comments on a paid ad gets an automatic direct message from the brand, starting a more intimate relationship right on the platform of discovery. Brands can then build out workflows and full decision trees to automate further messaging, strengthening the connection and driving business objectives.
Integrate brand values into your email campaigns
While DMs offer marketers a new avenue for reaching and communicating with consumers, traditional emails aren’t going anywhere either. And it’s important for brands to ensure that the social, environmental and emotional values that they promote on their social media accounts make their way into emails.
While brand building usually lives in the top-of-funnel realm of social, and email is thought of as more of a CRM tool, breaking down organizational barriers will unlock new opportunities to strengthen brand identity through email marketing, where a brand’s most loyal customers are typically the audience.
One way to bring the power of social to lower-funnel email campaigns is through communication on values, which are increasingly important to consumers young and old. In fact, as many as 82% of consumers want the brands they buy from to hold values that align with their own. For brands, communicating those values can be a huge boon to sales.
When corporate communication teams craft social campaigns on CSR, ESG and DEI initiatives, departments must communicate so that those values also inform communications on CRM channels like email. This cooperation will ensure the brand has a unified message that builds the brand and the business at the same time.
