Recently I was reflecting on a conversation I had with some friends about SXSW and Foursquare’s partnership with MTV & VH1. All of this got me thinking about Marc by Marc Jacobs and its recent partnership with Foursquare and how all of these partnerships with the social media-driven, location-based mobile capability inherent within Foursquare could benefit email marketing.
Why am I focusing on email marketing in the face of the inherent coolness and youthful feel of social media & mobile technologies? I focus on it because in spite of what anyone might believe, email marketing will be around for a long time to come.
Why? Simply because there are many, many people who are very comfortable with it and people do not separate their forms of media — they use it all in an intuitive and mixed manner…so communicators/marketers should not completely ignore/forget email marketing as a great medium to connect with people.
Now this may not be a new idea or even a good idea, but what if retailers, fashion houses and whoever else chose to integrate email into these partnerships they are creating with entities such as Foursquare? What if they used email as their space for completely exclusive contests, offers and information for their subscribers?
What if they kicked it up a notch and not only gave fashionistas or reality tv show junkies the opportunity to attend a fashion show/meet their fave ‘celebrity’ via Foursquare but the chance to continue to receive updates and information that no one else in the public gets about their fave fashion label or ‘celebrity’? What if we extended the relationship that they have with the brand through email, instead of it being a just one-off interactions through Foursquare?
What if we gave them relevant content that was pertinent to why they joined the email list in the first place — giving them something to talk about with their friends and giving them a reason to stay connected to the brand? What if we grew a community of true fans with the help of email – specifically by using email as a platform to inform and connect users with the information they want and telling them about relevant upcoming Foursquare events? What if?
Why not be there at all touch-points that make the most sense?
Now, like I said…none of this is new to people, I am sure…but they are just some of my thoughts on how brands/companies can extend the interactions they have with engaged people and probably further develop the scope of their own brand. Or maybe it all sounds crazy, lol? Who knows?
But it doesn’t hurt to try, does it? Especially since the highly engaged person does not think by information medium, he/she just sees all of these mediums together as one highway for them to connect with a brand/person/entity.
So why not be there at all touch-points that make the most sense, right?
Sophia Aladenoye is an email marketing analyst at
Bloomingdales.com and calls herself a digital communications enthusiast. Sophia currently blogs her thoughts, which tend to revolve around
digital communications, human connectivity and authenticity here. You can connect with her on Twitter here.
Also read this post by Sophia: Does OpenID help or hurt email marketing?
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