More and more sales offers, promotions and contests are popping up on the social media networks. For this reason alone, standing out and being unique in your social marketing is now more important than ever. Fortunately, distancing yourself from the crowd is relatively easy when your strategy aims to buck the trend of what has become the norm. This post will provide a few examples of how social media can be used to engage your email audience while keeping your marketing unique in the process.

Take Your Efforts Offline

Bringing email marketing and social media together to reward your subscribers is great, but keep in mind that there is no golden rulebook stating that your efforts have to be limited entirely to the web. Here is an example of how you can use both channels to pamper your loyal customers offline. Let’s say you are a successful restaurant owner opening up a new location in your area. If so, you could use email to invite those customers to participate in the sweepstakes running on your Facebook page and in turn, give them a chance to win a free meal at your grand opening. This isn’t necessarily a revolutionary marketing tactic, but it can spread like viral wildfire all due to the involvement of the social arena.

Get in on the Location Game

When we think of social, most of us envision the more conventional sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. These outlets have potential, but despite their size and power, they are just mere pieces in a much bigger picture. Social media has spawned a few submarkets, and the one that looks like it has the most potential is geolocation.

Something as simple as a free cocktail for checking in at your local sports bar on a site like Foursquare could be the perfect way to show your email subscribers that they are appreciated. The subscriber gets to quench their thirst without paying a penny and you benefit from word of mouth marketing. So while the usual suspects have their place, location-based tools can also be an effective part of your social email integration strategy.

Engage Your Audience

Any marketer can post a tweet or status update promising a free gift to their audience. While several people would love to get something without having to lift a finger, you’d be surprised at how many would much rather take a specific action in order to redeem the prize at the end of your offer. Adding the stipulations of checking on FourSquare and participating in your Facebook sweepstakes are perfect examples of encouraging your customers to interact as opposed to rewarding them without rewarding yourself. Your audience wants to be engaged, so why not play along?

When it comes to integrated communications, email marketing and social media are two of the best tools you can team up. As you can see, there are plenty of ways to make this marriage pay off for both you and your audience, all with the added benefit of not coming off like the next bandwagon jumper.