The conventional wisdom is to move followers off social to an owned email list. However, the reverse is also powerful. Drive engagement and grow your social following by embedding links to your best social posts directly within your newsletters and promotional emails.

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Unlike social media, where algorithms and platform changes control your reach, an email list is a durable asset you own. This provides stability and a direct line of communication, insulating your business from platform volatility and ensuring you can always reach your audience.

Since true video embedding in email is unreliable, use animated GIFs to simulate video content and boost clicks. Create a short, looping GIF from your video, overlay a play button icon, and link it to the full video. This serves as a more dynamic and enticing call-to-action than a static image.

Unlike standard posts that are subject to algorithmic reach, a LinkedIn newsletter sends an email directly to every subscriber's inbox. This provides a powerful, free distribution channel with nearly 100% deliverability, allowing marketers to guarantee their content is seen by their most engaged followers on the platform.

Since embedding actual video in email is unreliable, marketers can create an animated GIF of a video thumbnail. Animating a 'play' button or background elements signals that there is rich media content, serving as a highly effective call-to-action to drive clicks to external landing pages, demos, or case studies.

Email marketing delivers a powerful, unmatched return on investment, with industry figures suggesting up to a 40x return. A single strategic email can easily generate more revenue and direct results than weeks of consistent, effort-intensive social media posting, making it a highly leveraged channel.

Position your email list as the central hub of your marketing, not just another channel. The primary goal of all other efforts—social media, podcasts, blogs—should be to grow and serve this core, owned asset. This creates a sustainable, defensible marketing ecosystem.

Instead of treating social media as a long-term home, use it as a strategic tool to get your audience onto platforms you own, like an email list. The primary goal is to capture attention and immediately guide followers into your ecosystem, building a more resilient business off-platform.

Counterintuitively, dedicating budget to campaigns optimized for engagements, follows, and shares can be a powerful brand-building tool. This approach reaches more people less expensively than conversion campaigns, building an audience and 'searing memories' that lead to future demand, complementing direct response efforts.

Reverse the traditional marketing funnel. By linking from newsletters directly to a relevant social media post, brands can leverage their highly-engaged email audience to boost post performance and grow their social following simultaneously.

Similar to email marketing, getting users to reply directly to an Instagram Story is a powerful engagement signal. The algorithm interprets this interaction as valuable and shows the story to more people, exponentially increasing its visibility.

Drive Email Subscribers to Social Media by Linking to Posts in Your Newsletter | RiffOn