Email and social media marketing in B2B: how your channels reinforce each other

Integrating email and social media means reaching the same lead across multiple channels instead of running two separate campaigns. In B2B, that is the difference between one email that gets ignored and a prospect who reads your email, sees your name again on LinkedIn and then requests a conversation after all. The core idea: use your email list to build advertising audiences, add social share buttons to your emails and let the same message bounce back and forth between channels. In this article you will read how to do that concretely, especially the combination of email marketing and LinkedIn.

Why run email and social media together?

Most B2B companies treat email and social as two separate worlds. One person sends the newsletter, another posts on LinkedIn, and nobody connects the dots. A shame, because it is often the same people on the other side.

In B2B, nobody buys after a single touch. You sell to multiple decision-makers, with a long sales cycle, and those people need repetition before they trust you. A prospect who opens your email and also sees your post on LinkedIn remembers you better than someone who only encounters you through one channel. It is not about more channels for the sake of channels, but about reaching the same lead more often and more cheaply.

The compounding effect works both ways: your email brings your best readers to your LinkedIn content, and your social audience subscribes to your list, where you have far more control over who sees your message (no algorithm in between). Litmus explains at length how to successfully integrate email and social media. The goal stays the same as with any channel: qualified leads and revenue, not more followers or a higher open rate as an end in itself.

How do you use your email list for retargeting on LinkedIn?

This is the most powerful integration and at the same time the most underused. Your email list is a list of people who already know you. That same list can be uploaded into an advertising platform as an audience, a so-called tailored audience or matched audience. On LinkedIn Ads it is called a matched audience. Your ads then only appear to contacts who are already on your list, not to a cold audience.

Why that works: you advertise to warm contacts instead of strangers. That makes a serious difference to your advertising cost. BetaBrand achieved a 63% lower cost per acquisition through tailored audiences (an uploaded email list) on a social platform, according to Twitter’s figures. The logic is universal: warm audiences convert more cheaply than cold ones.

Concretely, for B2B with LinkedIn:

• Upload your list as a matched audience. Your non-openers, your leads that went quiet, your entire nurturing segment: you can find them all again on LinkedIn with ads.
• Combine it with your email flow. Someone who does not open your drip campaign will still come across you through an ad. Two channels, the same message, one lead.
• Build a lookalike. Starting from your best customers, you let the platform look for a similar audience, so you approach cold prospects who resemble your existing customers.

That way your email list becomes more than a send list: it is the foundation for cheaper, better-targeted ads. If you want to know how to get leads to land in that list automatically, read up on how to set up lead nurturing.

Do social share buttons in B2B emails really work?

Yes, and the effect is bigger than many marketers think. By putting social media share buttons in your emails, you give readers the chance to forward your content to their network right away. According to GetResponse, the email click-through rate is up to 158% higher when you add social sharing to your emails.

The best-known example comes from e-commerce, but the principle applies broadly: Sony Vaio exceeded its “revenue per delivered email” target by 172% by placing Pin It buttons in emails (MarketingSherpa). The lesson for B2B is not “add Pinterest”, but rather: make it absurdly easy for your readers to spread your best content further.

In practice that means:

• Place share buttons on valuable content, such as a whitepaper, case study or webinar invitation, not on a flat sales offer.
• Add a “share on LinkedIn” button with pre-filled text, so your contact gets your content in front of their own network in two clicks.
• Ask for it explicitly too. A short line like “Know someone who would find this useful? Forward it” often works better than a button alone.

Your best readers become your cheapest distribution channel. In B2B, their network consists of exactly the colleagues and industry peers you want to reach.

When is integrating email and social not worth it yet?

Honest advice is part of the deal: cross-channel integration is a lever on something that already works, not a rescue for something that does not. A few situations where you are better off fixing something else first:

• Your list is too small. A matched audience of a few dozen contacts does not produce a usable advertising audience. Build a healthy list first.
• You have no content to share. Share buttons on a sales email without value will not be used. First content people want to forward, then the buttons.
• Your email flow is not in place. Integrating with social only makes sense once your email foundation is right. First set up your marketing automation and your B2B email marketing properly.
• You steer on the wrong numbers. More shares or cheaper clicks mean nothing if no conversations or requests come out of them.

In those cases, integration is not the first step. A list that works, a sharp offer and solid content are. Only after that does the combination of channels give you a real edge.

How do you measure whether the integration works?

Not by followers or opens. Those are intermediate steps, not results. Steer on what happens after the click: qualified leads, demo requests, quotes and customers. A cheaper cost per acquisition is nice, but only if those acquisitions actually become leads your sales team can follow up.

So work with clear attribution. Tag the ads that target your email list separately from your cold campaigns, so you can see whether warm retargeting really converts more cheaply. Also measure whether contacts you reach through multiple channels move through your funnel faster. That way integration becomes a measurable advantage instead of a feeling.

Frequently asked questions about integrating email and social media

What is the first thing I should do to connect email and LinkedIn? Upload your email list as a matched audience on LinkedIn. That way your ads reach exactly the people you already email, which lowers your advertising cost and repeats your message across two channels.

Does targeting my email list really lower advertising cost? Usually yes. You advertise to warm contacts instead of a cold audience. Figures show a substantially lower cost per acquisition with uploaded lists as an audience, because warm people convert more cheaply.

Do social share buttons help in a B2B email? Yes. Research points to a considerably higher click-through rate when you add share buttons. It works best with genuinely valuable content that your readers want to share with their network.

Which social channel should I focus on in B2B? Usually LinkedIn. That is where the roles and decision-makers you already approach by email are, so the overlap with your list and the relevance of your audience are highest there.

What should I steer on with an integrated approach? On qualified leads, requests and customers, not on followers, opens or shares. The latter are intermediate steps; your return sits in what happens after the click.

Ready to make your channels reinforce each other?

Running email and social separately means leaving money on the table: the same lead then costs you attention twice and delivers less. By using your list for retargeting and making your best content shareable, you reach the same people more often and more cheaply. We are a small team that moves fast and treats channels for what they are: means to deliver customers and revenue, not to hit pretty numbers. Want to know how email and LinkedIn will deliver the most leads for you? Schedule your free intake.