Research firm Constant Contact released a study on Tuesday urging small businesses to implement marketing strategies that leverage multiple platforms to target prospects and provide several opportunities for conversion.
The primary channels Constant Contact focused on in its study were email marketing and social media marketing. According to Constant Contact, businesses that employ both social media and email marketing strategies see greater benefits from their campaigns, ultimately manifesting into improved conversion rates.
“Small businesses are always asking us, ’email marketing or social media marketing? Which is the best use of my time and resources?’ In fact, it’s not either/or. It’s both. Use email to communicate with your current customers and social media to reach new customers,” Rick Jensen, chief sales and marketing officer for Constant Contact, said.
The study revealed that targeting new prospects through social media resulted in 14.4 percent increase of email marketing contact lists. Moreover, businesses leveraging both methods have email lists that are 53 percent larger than those using just email marketing.
While Constant Contact did not include content marketing in its study, other reports have found it to be an even greater producer of ROI than social or email marketing. However, it does require some strategizing that may can be difficult for some small businesses. Brafton reported on Monday that content writers must understand the value of targeting specific demographics to succeed in content marketing.
