Direct marketing professionals are using social media channels in a bid to enhance their email campaigns, according to new research.

Published by Econsultancy and Adestra, the fourth annual Email marketing Industry Census found that more than a third of companies are using email to encourage the sharing of content on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Furthermore, 31% of firms said that they were also hoping to do this in the near future, while a fifth of businesses are using email marketing to promote customer ratings and reviews.

Linus Gregoriadis, research director at Econsultancy, said: “Companies must take care to focus on the relevance of their email in a world where it is becoming increasingly important for brands to demonstrate value, rather than bombarding people with unwanted messages.”

This research backs up the view of Pete Fealey – head of Insight Data’s Digital Marketing Division, who has seen a rapid increase in the number of firms using both Twitter and Insight Data’s e-marketing service, Mailminx, to communicate with prospective customers.

“When e-marketing and Twitter work in tandem, our clients have found that response rates have gone through the roof” explains Pete. “Many of the major decision makers in the window industry spend a lot of time using computers, meaning e-mail is an ideal form of communication. Also, many of these people are using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and are often following window industry related companies. This gives our clients an opportunity to grab the attention of potential customers on two different fronts, significantly improving response rates.”

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