It’s a pretty safe bet that most brands “under-utilize” social media marketing. Not only is it an outlet for thought leadership and engagement, but social media marketing can also fuel your email marketing.

Why do we care so much about email marketing? It’s because when it’s done well, on average, it generates $42 for every $1 spent and there is no other marketing strategy with that good of results!

This post will explore a few strategies that you can implement into your already running social media program to gain more email addresses to nurture through email marketing. 

Create a Landing Page

First things first. You need a “home” for your email collection efforts.

Create a landing page that you link to from your social posts. It should explain why someone should provide their email address. It can be anything from a newsletter signup form to a free resource.

Once you have a landing page to collect email addresses, you’ll be ready to implement creative ways of getting consumers to your landing page.

Run a Giveaway

One of the most effective ways to collect many email addresses is to host a giveaway on social media.

Pick a prize–it can be a gift card or your best-selling product. An entry to win the prize can be to sign up for your brand’s emails. You’ll be surprised at how willing consumers are to give you their email addresses if it’s for a chance to win a cool prize.

Promote your giveaway on all of your social channels using strategic hashtags and quippy messaging. 

Sound like a winning strategy? This post does a deep dive into running a giveaway on social media.

Invite People to Vote

Enticing people to vote on something is similar to running a giveaway.

We’ve already talked about landing pages. Have people vote on something pertaining to your brand like product colors, best stories, etc. and to vote, consumers have to enter their email address.

Be sure to promote your voting and designate a prize. The prize helps incentivize people to vote in the first place and will maximize your efforts.

Just like with a giveaway, promote your voting opportunity on all of your social channels.

Utilize Content With Lead Capture Forms

Content that you create that is “cooler” than just a blog post should be gated with a lead capture form.

Once your content is live, promote it like crazy on your social channels to direct them to your downloadable content in exchange for their email address.

You’ve probably already seen this strategy when you personally download eBooks, reports, white papers, etc.

Be Smart With CTAs

You want people to sign up for your emails? Then tell them! Consumers love transparency.

Whether it’s to vote, download content, etc., sprinkle the CTAs in your profile, in your actual posts, within threads and even paid ads.

Run Paid Ads

So we’ve covered a variety of ways to use social media to lead people to an action in which they provide their email addresses.

Once you see your social efforts to collect email addresses working, maximize the strategies that you observe to be the most effective by running paid social ads. 

Utilize Social Proof

Consumers want to hear from other consumers. Via social media, you can get your brand’s social proof out there.

What does this have to do with email addresses? Well, you can gather testimonials about the value current consumers are getting out of your emails and use their quotes in graphics to post on social with a CTA to sign up for your emails.

Final Thoughts: How to Utilize Your New Email Addresses

We’ve just equipped you with new ways to use social media marketing to build up your database of email addresses. Want to make the most out of these contacts? Then check out some of our top email marketing posts.

• 17 Actionable Email Marketing Tips to Supercharge Your Efforts
• 8 Creative Ways to Make Your Email Marketing Strategy More Appealing
• 17 Game Changing Email Marketing Tips

Do you have any strategies to gain more email addresses via social media? We’d love to read your insights in the comments below!