In the midst of the great feeding frenzy that’s taking place over social media marketing, there’s been a bit of a division between those who feel that email is dead, and those who blame the likes of Facebook and Twitter for killing it off. But the irony is, email's not dead and there’s no need for such division. Social media and email are perfectly capable of coexisting, and in fact merging the two together with smart email marketing design could be the smartest approach of all.

Email marketing works best when you leverage every tool at your disposal to help get the word out about your goods and services. The simple fact is that email is not dead, and from all indications it’s going to be around for quite some time to come. The same can be said about social media, which continues to grow at something of a startling rate – especially Facebook, which is on track to break the 1 billion user mark by the end of the year.

This is an enormous opportunity for you as an email marketer to employ custom email design that incorporates links not only to your website, but also to your company Facebook page, Twitter feed, or YouTube Channel. The availability of easily downloadable social media widgets that can let your readers “Like” your company Facebook page by clicking a graphic in the message will turn your otherwise stale, straightforward email marketing design into a gateway for social interaction, as well as increased exposure.