1. White Paper
August 2009
It Takes a Community to
Raise Brand Advocates:
Integrating E-mail and Social
Media to Create a Better Customer
Communication Strategy
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The Straw that Stirs the Marketing Mix.................................... 3
Brand Advocating and the Social Bubble.................................. 4
From First-Time Buyer to Brand Advocate................................ 5
Nurturing the Individual and the Community............................ 7
Recommendations from e-Dialog............................................. 8
© 2009 e-Dialog, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.e-Dialog.com ED313
Page 1

2. Executive Summary
According to Forrester Research, Inc., by the end of 2009 more than 85% of online consumers will be
reading or viewing social content1. The day that social networking reaches near-ubiquitous adoption
is fast approaching, and the pace will only quicken as brands move beyond experimenting with social
networking and begin focusing on business impact.
If you are like many e-mail marketers today, you have been tasked with understanding how to
leverage social networking and make it profitable. And why not – after all, you did such a great job
transforming e-mail into the company’s most profitable marketing channel! But there’s another, even
better reason why you might just be the right person for the job.
When you think of social media, most likely it is applications like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
that immediately come to mind. And there are hundreds of other examples, with new tools being
introduced every day. E-mail is probably not at the forefront of that list, yet it is an example of social
media that simply pre-dates the terminology. And because of its maturity and widespread adoption,
e-mail is uniquely positioned to help you tap into the new breed of social media.
In this paper you will learn why, despite the explosive growth of social media, e-mail remains at
the center of most brands’ marketing communications strategies. You will also gain insight into the
unique strategic relationship between e-mail and social media. We will explain why integrating these
two channels provides your brand with a better customer communication strategy, one that allows
you to nurture the individual customer and the social community.
Recommended Reading:
Enabling, Listening, and Leveraging: Best Practices for Integrating E-mail and Social Media Channels,
published by e-Dialog, Inc. August 2009
1
Top Social Computing Predictions for 2009 January 27, 2009 © Forrester Research, Inc.
© 2009 e-Dialog, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.e-Dialog.com Page 2

3. The Straw that Stirs the Marketing Mix
While social networking has enjoyed monumental growth over the last two years, e-mail has
continued to move towards the core of most brands’ marketing communications strategies. Several
key factors are motivating this shift towards e-mail centered customer communications:
Ubiquitousness: According to Forrester Research, 90% of the US population uses e-mail, with the
number expected to grow from 145 million in 2009 to 153 million in 20142. That puts e-mail virtually
on par with television, radio, and direct mail with regards to consumer access.
Cost-effectiveness: The impressive return on investment of e-mail is well documented – in 2008, the
Direct Marketing Association calculated it to be $45.06 for every dollar sent. Although 2009 projects
it to be $43.52, the second year in a row in which e-mail ROI has experienced a slight decline, it is
still vastly superior to the ROI of any other marketing channel. The decrease can be at least partially
attributed to the increase in investment in e-mail marketing year over year.
Want to learn more about Expectation of the channel: According to a survey recently conducted by e-Dialog International3,
our 2009 European E-mail only 2% of respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 prefer to be contacted about new products via
Attitudes survey? Contact social networks. This compares with 66% who prefer to be contacted via e-mail. Furthermore, in the
an e-Dialog International same age group, 62% said they are more likely to make a purchase online after receiving a promotion
representative at e-mail, compared with only 24% if the same communication was made via social media. This clearly
eurosales@e-dialog.com. shows that for social networks, the emphasis is on social interaction. E-mail is strongly recognized as
the appropriate channel for commercial communication.
Measurability: E-mail trumps the traditional marketing channels like television and radio based on
its ability to produce compelling metrics based on real data. As an e-mail marketer you can clearly
illustrate how each e-mail sent converts to sales and provide an accurate measurement of each
campaign’s return on investment. Television, radio, and even social media are relied on primarily for
building brand awareness; at least until a reliable social media metric is identified.
One-to-one communication: E-mail truly separates itself from television, radio, direct mail, and
all other channels based on its ability to target messages to customer needs and preferences. This
is also why e-mail is the only channel ideally engineered for customer retention. E-mail is perfectly
suited for the job of moving consumers along the customer lifecycle, from first-time buyer to loyal
customer to brand advocate. In fact, by 2014 nearly three-fourths of the $2 billion spent on e-mail
marketing is expected to specifically address customer retention4.
It is in this area – the task of moving consumers along the customer lifecycle – that e-mail and social
media share a unique strategic relationship among all other channels. Although e-mail and social
media are powerful channels that work differently, they do share a common goal: convert customers
into brand advocates and provide them with the means to advocate on your behalf.
2
US Email Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014 June 12, 2009 © Forrester Research, Inc.
3
2009 European E-mail Attitudes Survey © e-Dialog, Inc.
4
US Email Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014 June 12, 2009 © Forrester Research, Inc.
© 2009 e-Dialog, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.e-Dialog.com Page 3

4. Brand Advocating and the Social Bubble
Your company’s social network is not just an average everyday community of consumers. Rather, it is
a highly engaged community that is made up of your company’s best customers. Social media users
remain very selective as to who they engage in their community, and spend considerably less time
engaged in social media created by and about brands (see figure 1). Which means if a user chooses
to connect with your brand, it is safe to assume that he or she think highly of your products and
services; enough to warrant a connection normally reserved for personal relationships. It is in your
brand’s best interests to treat these users as best customers.
Figure 1: Time Spent on Branded versus Personal Social Networks
If blogs are the foundation of Furthermore, customers connected with your brand in social networks have already expressed a
social media, what does that willingness to advocate on your brand’s behalf. By being inside what we refer to as the “social
make e-mail? Author and veteran bubble” (see figure 2) your best customers are actively posting in blogs, sharing information via
technology journalist Paul Gillin Facebook and MySpace, tweeting thoughts and opinions, posting videos to YouTube, and more. The
shares his opinion on page 6. most active users fancy themselves to be authorities on the topics they love. They want to be heard
and they want something to talk about – so how do you get them talking about your brand?
Figure 2: The Social Bubble
When customers are connected with your
brand in social networks, they are inside
what we refer to as the “social bubble.”
CREATOR
By virtue of being inside the bubble, these POSTS
LINKEDIN
customers have expressed a willing- CRITIC
TWITTER
ness to advocate on behalf of your brand
PROMOTIONS
COLLECTOR
using any number of social media tools. FACEBOOK
JOINER
The rings within the bubble illustrate the
BLOGGING
different degrees of customer involvement BEBO SPECTATOR
in social activities, from inactive users YOUTUBE INACTIVE
REVIEWS
to spectators (e.g., customers who read
blogs or frequent YouTube) to creators
MYSPACE
PLAXO COUPONS
of social content (e.g., customers who EVENTS FRIENDSTER
write online reviews or manage a personal
blog). This idea was popularized by
Forrester Research’s “Groundwell”
concept.6
5
Social Brand Strategy December 17, 2008 © Forrester Research, Inc.
6
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc.
Published by Harvard Business Press
© 2009 e-Dialog, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.e-Dialog.com Page 4

5. From First-time Buyer to Brand Advocate
Earlier in the paper we talked about e-mail being the channel that is ideally engineered for customer
retention, perfectly suited for the job of moving consumers along the customer lifecycle. E-mail is
able to leverage multi-faceted customer information – demographics, online and offline behavior,
preferences, and more – in order to segment audiences and intelligently target the individual
customer’s needs at a given point in time. These meaningful interactions become touch points along
the customer lifecycle, effectively moving customers through the important stages: from first-time
buyer to repeat purchaser, loyal customer, and eventually, brand advocate.
This is one way in which e-mail is an enabler of your brand’s social networking success – it is the
channel that most effectively creates your brand advocates. E-mail moves customers along the
lifecycle and eventually” pushes” them into the social bubble, eliciting the desire to promote and
providing tools with which your best customers can advocate on your brand’s behalf (see figure 3).
Figure 3: E-mail Pushes Brand Advocates into the Social Bubble
LOYAL BRAND
REPEAT CUSTOMER AVOCATE
PURCHASER
FIRST-TIME
BUYER
The e-mail channel has the key responsibility of orchestrating the customer lifecycle: ideally moving your
customer from a first-time buyer to repeat purchaser, loyal customer, and eventually, brand advocate. In this
way e-mail is an enabler of your social networking success, as it helps to create the brand advocates who
will become active within the social bubble. At the same time, e-mail invites customers to participate in social
networking activities, and encourages them to create share-worthy content that can be used to further promote
your
brand and its products.
In other words, e-mail provides a “push-pull” effect that significantly boosts your social networking
strategy. Consider the impact of the call to action in these “social” e-mail campaigns:
Want to learn more about
• Write an online review for a recently purchased product or completed service
integrating e-mail and social
• Share the link to an entertaining video or online game with friends and family
media? Request our best practices
• Join a community of users who actively blog about your products and services
paper: maxROI@e-dialog.com.
• Sign up to receive tweets from a personality closely associated with your brand
• Embed applications that enable easy sharing across multiple social networks
As you can see, the push-pull effect isn’t just about moving brand advocates into the social bubble.
It’s also about filling the social bubble with content that is share-worthy. Remember, with e-mail you
are managing a highly individualized and captive audience. It only makes sense to engage them in
opportunities to be active in your social networks: writing reviews, distributing promotions, sharing
viral content, and more. Word-of-mouth and advocacy marketing begins with your best customers,
and e-mail is the most direct channel available for you to reach them.
© 2009 e-Dialog, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.e-Dialog.com Page 5

6. Opinion
Is E-mail the Foundation of
Your Social Media Program?
by Paul Gillin, Principal of Gillin Communications
I like to think of blogs as the cinderblocks of social media. That isn’t an insult; blogs are the founda-
tion of nearly everything that people do in the so-called Web 2.0 world. If blogs are the cinderblocks,
then e-mail is the mortar. You simply can’t have an effective social media program without an e-mail
component, but you must treat this tool differently than any other media. Consider these factors:
Paul Gillin, a veteran technology Most people live in their inboxes. For business professionals and adult consumers alike, the inbox
journalist, was the founding
remains the springboard into all online activities. That isn’t going to change anytime soon.
editor-in-chief of TechTarget and
was the editor-in-chief and
executive editor of ComputerWorld E-mail is the most personal of all digital media. Social networks, blogs and Twitter are great at
for 15 years. Since 2005, he has delivering a message to many people, but when you want to get down and personal, you write an
advised marketers and business e-mail.
executives on strategies to optimize
their use of social media and online
channels to reach buyers cost-
E-mail is a contract. When someone grants you the right to interrupt them occasionally with a
effectively. He is a popular speaker message, it’s an acknowledgment that there is value in what you say. An opt in e-mail list is the
and author of two books: The New foundation for an ongoing two-way conversation between a business and its constituents. Treasure it.
Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to
the New Social Media and Secrets E-mail demands special treatment. Social media permits us to share our thoughts and experiences
of Social Media Marketing: How
with the knowledge that people who don’t care won’t pay attention.
to Use Online Conversations and
Customer Communities to Turbo-
Charge Your Business. E-mail is more invasive, and that means it must be used more carefully. When people give you
permission to send them e-mail, they’re granting you the right to a relationship, no matter how
tenuous. You must take special care never to abuse that privilege. Use it as an opportunity to
engage in a mutually rewarding conversation in which every interaction has value for the recipient.
I love social media, but my most intimate relationships invariably have an e-mail component. As you
construct your social media marketing strategy, remember the importance of good mortar to a solid
foundation.
© 2009 e-Dialog, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.e-Dialog.com Page 6

7. Nurturing the Individual and the Community
It’s true that social networks have significantly altered the landscape of advocacy marketing by
enhancing the voice of the customer. In fact, most experts believe the balance of power has shifted
once and for all from the marketer to the customer community. But brands must not overlook the
importance of marketing to the individual. As e-mail marketers we have helped condition customers
to expect relevant messages, and that expectation is not going to change.
That brings us back to an earlier discussion: the expectation of the channel. When a customer
chooses to join your brand’s social network, her desire is to interact with other fans of your products
or services; not necessarily with your brand. Remember, with social networks the emphasis is on
social. E-mail is the channel of choice for commercial communication, and the channel through which
e-Dialog has developed the the customer expects to manage her relationship with your brand.
Relevance Trajectory methodology
to help clients understand how E-mail is also the channel that is best-suited for you to manage the relationship with the individual
to develop relevant, one-to-one customer. For example, let’s say you are a fashion retailer and your customer Sarah Jones is a
communications. Click here to frequent buyer enrolled in your e-mail program. Sarah also happens to be a member of your Facebook
request the white paper. community. Through Facebook you know that Sarah is a fan of your products, and you know when
Sarah shares her opinion of your products with friends and family. When you market to this social
network, you are able to connect with Sarah and her community at a broad level.
On the other hand, e-mail gives you the ability to capture and apply an abundance of customer data in
order to market to Sarah one on one. Facebook knows Sarah is a fan of your products. E-mail knows
Sarah’s most recent purchases, favorite store location, preferred product categories, even her clothing
sizes. Facebook knows a fan named Sarah Jones; e-mail knows Sarah Jones.
Now consider the advantage e-mail provides in the context of the social bubble. Once a customer
enters the bubble and becomes a brand advocate, it’s important that you continue to nurture the
individual relationship and strengthen his advocacy – in other words move the customer closer to the
center of the bubble, say from a spectator to a critic or a creator. Nurturing through e-mail ensures
that the customer remains in the center of the bubble where advocating on behalf of your brand is
going to be at its strongest and most valuable (see figure 4).
Figure 4: E-mail Nurtures the Individual within the Social Bubble
Social networking is about communities
rather than the individual. Which is why
when your customer enters the social
bubble, it is important that you continue
to use e-mail as a means to nurture the
individual relationship with your brand
and strengthen the customer’s advocacy.
As e-mail advances the relationship, it can E-MAIL
move the customer closer to the center of
the bubble, where he or she becomes a
creator of social content rather than just a
spectator. The closer your customer is to
the center of the bubble, the more
valuable his or her advocacy will be.
© 2009 e-Dialog, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.e-Dialog.com Page 7

8. You are familiar with the adage, “It takes a village to raise a child?” In much the same way it takes a community to raise brand advocates.
And as an e-mail marketer you should explore the opportunities to lean on social networks and use them to cultivate your community
of best customers. But the relationship between the individual customer and your brand is the one that matters most, and it remains a
responsibility that only e-mail can fulfill to its fullest potential.
Integrating E-mail and Social Media
Recommendations from e-Dialog
There are many opportunities to integrate e-mail and social media; the key is to understand where they intersect and how one
channel can leverage the other’s strengths (and perhaps shore up some weaknesses, as well). Following are some
recommendations to help you get started.
Marketers must focus on a social networking strategy first. Believe it or not, most companies are still in the asset-building
phase of social networking. You should recognize this as the critical first step, not going to market. Pushing customers to a
Facebook page or Twitter account that delivers no value only leads to disappointment, even among your most loyal brand advocates.
Marketers must enable customers to share content via e-mail. At the most fundamental level, your e-mail campaigns should
leverage share-with-your-network (SWYN) to encourage sharing across social networks. However, SWYN should never be the only
call to action. Offer value.
Marketers should use e-mail to listen to customers and gather feedback. Engage your customers to participate in product
reviews and satisfaction surveys and use the results to fuel word of mouth. Remember, customer reviews are the number one aid
to a purchasing decision.
Marketers must leverage social content by bringing it to customers’ inboxes. By sharing customer reviews, blog posts, and
viral marketing programs (e.g., YouTube videos) in an e-mail, you can accelerate not only the consumption of social content, but
also the customer’s willingness to cross the social media bubble and start advocating for your brand.
As a follow-up e-Dialog has compiled best practices and case examples advising e-mail marketers on how to implement these
recommendations and published them in our white paper: Enabling, Listening, and Leveraging: Best Practices for Integrating
E-mail and Social Media Channels. Contact an e-Dialog representative if you would like to receive a copy of this paper.
About e-Dialog
With more than 10 years of e-mail marketing experience and many experts on our To learn more about e-Dialog’s leading
staff, e-Dialog provides software-as-a-service and strategic services to world-class technology, services, and solutions,
marketers in retail, entertainment, travel, media, business-to-business, and more. visit our Web site at www.e-Dialog.com.
We understand what it takes for our clients to be successful, which is why e-Dialog
is one of the only e-mail service providers consistently recognized by top analyst North America International
firms for both outstanding service and first-class technology. e-Dialog is a wholly 888-256-7687 +44 (0) 20 3219 6200
owned subsidiary of GSI Commerce, Inc. (Nasdaq: GSIC). maxroi@e-dialog.com eurosales@e-dialog.com
© 2009 e-Dialog, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.e-Dialog.com Page 8