by Sergio Balegno, Research Director

Increasing Reach through Social Sharing


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Social sharing allows email recipients to share email content on popular social networks and other social media sites. It is a rapidly emerging email tactic and, as this chart shows, about eight in 10 marketers agree that social sharing "extends the reach of email content to new markets" and "increases brand reputation and awareness."

We dedicated a chapter of the 2010 Email Marketing Benchmark Report to a special report on this topic with insights from marketers on strategies unique to social sharing. Many have already learned some valuable lessons.

For example, one marketer told us, "As with any messaging intended to build a relationship with prospective customers, the email content shared on social media sites must NOT be sales oriented. We began sharing content that was heavily geared toward promotion. This was not effective in the social environment. We now concentrate on educational and informational topics that our prospects and customers will find interesting rather than on aggressive selling information. This is building a preference for our brand within the social communities we are reaching."

For additional research data and insights about email marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Email Marketing Benchmark Report.