Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that use both email and social media marketing programs tend to achieve better results from their email campaigns, according to a report by VerticalResponse.

The new report compares the performance of email campaigns among clients of the VerticalResponse email platform with those conducted by clients of both the email platform and VerticalResponse's social media platform. All email campaigns were distributed via VerticalResponse.

On average, campaigns conducted by SMBs that use both social media marketing and email marketing generated 28% higher open rates than those conducted without the benefit of social marketing (i.e., SMBs using VerticalResponse email marketing only).

Music and consumer-electronics businesses achieved the best results via combined email and social marketing, recording open rates of 32.1% and 31.7%, respectively.

SMBs in the financial services, film, and graphic design industries generated open rates between 21% and 23%, on average, via the combination of email and social media marketing.

Which SMBs are taking advantage of the email-social marketing combination most? Among VerticalResponse clients, the industries with the highest adoption of both email and social marketing programs include: 

1. Non-profits
2. Real estate
3. Marketing and advertising
4. Internet
5. Health and wellness