Though social media marketing has captured the attention of companies worldwide, one expert recently opined that social media is most effective when paired with a traditional (and reliable) email marketing campaign.

Though social media marketing has captured the attention of companies worldwide, one expert recently opined that social media is most effective when paired with a traditional (and reliable) email marketing campaign. Content marketing for the two channels can help businesses launch comprehensive campaigns.

In an interview published by ClickZ, Alterian vice president of products Rusty Warner asserted that social media can refine a company's marketing strategy and provide it with a better means of gauging its email campaigns. While email can be an effective tool for getting the word out about, say, a new product or service, social media can then be used to generate customer feedback and measure reactions.

“[S]ocial media data can also be used to refine campaign strategy, drive segmentation and provide more detailed ROI reporting,” Warner said. “When leveraging social media channels with your email marketing programs, you must develop content for different audience segments to enable proper measurement.”

Additionally, Warner said analytics can be applied to landing pages and a company's web content to understand email recipients' and social users' site behavior. This approach, Warner asserted, allows companies to test and optimize their marketing campaigns.

In many ways, social media marketing is still in a nascent state, and many of its capabilities have not yet been fully explored. As Brafton recently reported, experts have advised businesses to get on board with developing social media channels (including Google+) early to realize benefits and connect to customers.