According to a study by EmailStatCenter.com (sponsored by ExactTarget and BrightWave), the promise of social media marketing riches is too much of a temptation for email marketers–they want in on the action.

According to the study, 43% of email marketing firms are already offering social media marketing as part of their service line-up:

Not sure what to make of the 66% that said they provide "Strategy & Consulting" alongside email marketing. I would have thought that ALL marketing firms offered strategy and consulting, otherwise you’re just some kind of email spammer.

The study helps make sense of why companies such as ExactTarget are buying up social media firms such as CoTweet. I never saw the overlap between email and social media, but apparently they do, and that’s all that matters, right?

I wonder how they plan to monitor all of this social media activity?