Like it or not, social media is a part of our everyday lives. Fighting it just makes you come off as a curmudgeon at this point. It has even evolved beyond Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Foursquare is a location-based social media platform that is equal parts social game and social marketing opportunity. There are plenty of benefits for a small business using Foursquare, especially for places with a brick and mortar location. I recently attended a Foursquare Summit hosted by Matt Saunders from CityLife Consulting. A lot of great marketing opportunities were discussed. Today I am going to focus on how you can combine Foursquare with your email marketing efforts.

It needs only simple cross channel promotion, much like you would do for Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else. You don’t want to start a campaign on Foursquare and then have it be a secret. Promote your Foursquare campaigns to your email subscribers as well as on your other social media channels. If you are using Foursquare as a small business, all of your email communications should include a reminder for your subscribers to check-in when they are at your establishment. You may even want to entice them with an offer if they do check in. You can even dedicate an entire email campaign to a special Foursquare campaign you may be running.

Are you using email to promote events? Foursquare can tie into that as well. Foursquare recently introduced the ability to check in at an event, not just a location. That means you can begin your event marketing well before the event with email and then follow through all the way until the participants have arrived at the event using Foursquare.

There is no one right way to do your marketing. It is important to try out all avenues and stick with what works. All of your channels work best when used together. Your email can help out your social and your print can help out both. When it comes to your efforts on Foursquare, use email to share your promotions with your subscribers. It may just be the thing that finally brings in a new customer.