These days, it's all about being online. Astral Brands, the parent company of cosmetics brands Pur Minerals and Aloette Cosmetics, is pairing the power of email and social media to raise awareness and boost sales of its expanding cosmetics lines.

With an email marketing effort that typically returns a 30% lift in same day sales, the company’s new social strategy uses its ExactTarget-powered email marketing messages to recruit new Facebook fans, providing the company a loyal group of brand advocates.

“Our expanded marketing effort provides both our customers and our independent consultants with new and different ways to interact with our brands,” said Nalini Humphrey, online marketing manager at Astral Brands. “Email provides a solid foundation for us to drive traffic to our social media campaigns.”

The company’s most recent Facebook campaign added more than 3,000 fans in the month of May. Using links in its email marketing messages and on its website, the company invited its network of franchises, consultants and customers to become fans as part of the company’s 31st anniversary celebration.

“Our expanding Facebook community provides us an engaged customer group that understands our products and wants to learn about the future of our brands and our ever-growing product line,” Ms. Humphrey said.