• by Amanda Hinkle , May 8, 2014

As a marketing strategist, I am intrigued by how “The Voice” leverages digital marketing to generate excitement and boost audience participation.  Social media plays a key role in the show, which is best exemplified by the “Instant Save.”

Here’s what happens. Singing artists compete on Monday, and America votes who should stay on. By Tuesday, the votes are tallied, and those at risk of being eliminated have one last chance to perform on Tuesday to prove to America why they should stay in the competition. When the host gives the signal, America has five minutes to tweet the artist’s name that they want to save at #VoiceSave.

Next, “The Voice” announces that Instant Save voting has opened with a big banner on the screen. During the commercial break the program broadcasts the same banner with a visual slide rule indicating the percentage of votes each participant is getting – in real time.

Using Twitter and television as the mechanisms to keep someone in the game in the spur of the moment is such a great manifestation of present-tense marketing I couldn’t help but make an example of it.

With that said, let’s consider how we can emulate such a strategy: sone that capitalizes on a large volume of active participants in one forum and extends it to another. While “The Voice” does not use email as part of its marketing mix, there certainly is an opportunity to use this powerful channel to keep the momentum going.  For instance, how about emailing those whom you can identify as Twitter activists to recap the week’s events and encourage participation in either forum for the week ahead!

The point is, if your brand is online, a tight integration between your social and email marketing initiatives can enhance the performance of both. Here are 10 more ways to do so:

1.     Coordinate calendars. Content themes should be aligned across all channels so that you are presenting an integrated experience for customers across email, social, web, banners, mobile and the like.

2.     Differentiate voices between email and social. For instance, while email newsletters can serve as recaps, social must be current and topical, or it will lose legitimacy.

3.     Embed social sharing buttons within email as appropriate to allow recipients to share either the entire email, or subjects of their choice, directly to their social networks.

4.     Highlight social community members in emails. It’s a great way to entice social community members to be more active in the community.

5.     Use social to drive email. Be proactive in planning a dedicated amount of social “inventory” to email acquisition.

6.     Use email to drive social. Enable email subscribers to share email preference changes across social media. That niche of customers who are active on social love to tell their friends what they “like.”  Opting in for a new email is an example of this.

7.     Explicitly invite email subscribers to leave comments on social. It’s a great way to move them along in the flow.

8.     Use images of actual emails within social posts. Images drive engagement in the social space.

9.     Set up an automated direct message for new Twitter followers that thanks, and makes them aware of, your email programs.

10.  Have an email opt-in field or tab on your Facebook page.

And here’s a bonus:

11.  Take your social media community out to dinner or buy them gifts. You will see the amount of social media inventory dedicated to email rise a bit.

Coordinating your digital marketing efforts is no small undertaking, but doing so is a more effective strategy than going about each in a silo.  As one “Voice” contestant said, “it’s all gonna be worth it in the end.”