Technology provides multiple channels to share information and content, but people create – and more importantly – consume that content. People and the communities they build, drive the web.

Regardless of the channel, those who forget people are the heart of the matter, fail.

Here are five multi-channel marketing truths that apply to all social channels including email marketing:

Communities drive the web

Communities and their desire to communicate gave birth to the web and continue to nurture its exponential growth. Provide a solid foundation with good content and then build on that foundation by providing people the tools (comments, reviews, forums and so on) to share and interact with each other around that content.

Know the people, then the technology

Knowing technology and what it can and can’t do is very important, but knowing your subscribers and what they do and don’t want is even more important. No matter what the channel is, you are still trying to engage a person using it.

Don’t tell me what you can do! Show me what I can do!

I think what people do with your product is a lot more powerful for marketing today than what your product can do – no matter how many special things it does. What’s really engaging is to show me people using the products, share their stories or revues on your website, in your email marketing and via other channels such as Facebook.

Respect my inbox

People opted into your email marketing list to get value and that value comes from your content. If you value your subscribers then respect their inbox and only send content they will value.

Listen

All social media including email (because when two humans interact it’s social) works two ways. If all you are doing is talking and you are not listening, then you are only taking advantage of half the power social media has to offer. Make sure you monitor social and interact and always have an actively monitored “reply” address for your email newsletter.

To relate and effectively interact with people, you have to know what they want. That’s why Marigold Engage by Sailthru developed solutions such as Horizon. Horizon gathers data on your users’ individual interests, based on activity on your website, mobile device and tablet, all tied to each user’s email address.