Most marketers believe there is value in combining email marketing and social media: Nearly 70% of small business marketers use some type of social media marketing tactic and 77% say integrating email marketing and social media is very or moderately important to their digital marketing efforts, according to a survey from AWeber Communications.

Among surveyed small business marketers, the most popular tactics used to integrate those two channels in 2009 were tweeting email newsletters (36.0%) and sending out blog entries to email lists (35.1%).

Some 13.1% of marketers included share options in email messages.

Below, other findings from AWeber Communications 2010 Email Marketing Customer Survey.

More small business marketers plan to use social media marketing tactics in the next 12 months: 54.1% say they intend to use Facebook as a tool to help build their email lists—allowing users to sign up for emails directly from the social site.

Broadcasting blog entries via emails lists (46.9%) will likely remain popular, as will adding "follow us" links to email message (46.9%). Some 43.9% of small business marketers plan to include sharing options, up 30.8 percentage points from the 13.1% who said they did so in 2009.

Looking for solid, substantiated information about email from the industry's best resources? The 67-page Email Marketing Factbook featuring 39 charts tells you about email usage, what captures users' attention, and how organizations are using email to reach customers. This email factbook consists of chapters 1 & 2 from the larger Digital Marketing Factbook a 144-page compilation of data and 110 charts that also covers search engine marketing and social media.

Benefits of Integrating Email With Social Channels

Nearly 20% of small business marketers say using both social media and email marketing has helped them increase customer loyalty. 

However, measuring return on investment (ROI) remains a challenge: Nearly 12 times as many small business marketers say email marketing ROI is more easily measured than social ROI: 61.5% vs. 5.3%.

Behaviorally Targeted Email Campaigns

One-half of small business marketers (50%) say behavioral targeting increases email conversion rates significantly or moderately. Two-thirds (66%) of small business marketers say they intend to use behavioral targeting as well as sales tracking in their campaigns over the next 12 months.

Overall, email marketing continues to bring significant value: 82% of small business marketers plan to increase their email marketing efforts over the next year.

Other key findings:

• Tracking email marketing is important for most small business marketers: 92% recognize the value of knowing when a purchase is made directly as a result of an email and 68.2% say analytical reporting significantly or moderately influences their email marketing strategies.
• Style matters: 62% of small business marketers say a sign-up form that looks as if it "belongs" on a website may convey a certain measure of authority—which in turn increases sign-up rates.
• The timing of emails matters too: 47% of small business marketers say email subscribers are more likely to open an email when they know when to expect it.

About the data: Findings are based on a survey of 2,579 AWeber small-business customers, conducted May 20-24, 2010.