When hashing out a marketing plan, most small business owners struggle to decide where to focus their efforts. Email marketing or social media? While both on their own are great, utilizing them together is where many SMBs find success.

A recent Constant Contact study analyzed data from small businesses that combined their email marketing with social media marketing and compared it to those who use email marketing alone. It’s clear that SMBs should do both. Smallbiztechnology.com summarized the study’s key takeaways:

Faster list growth: From June 2010 through August 2011, those using both social media and email marketing saw 14.43 percent list growth, while those using only email marketing saw 8.96 percent list growth.

Larger average list size: Those using both tactics have email lists that are 53 percent larger on average than their email-only counterparts.

With a larger list, you can begin engaging more contacts that are aware of your brand which in turn will help your click through rates:

The average click-through rate for those using both email and social media marketing was 59.3 basis points higher than for those using email only.

It has become apparent that focusing too much on one aspect of your marketing can limit your potential. Why exclude one outreach channel when you put extra KAPOW! in your marketing by using email and social media?

Holy return on investment, Batman!