Email remains preferred communication channel: study
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Consumers want better experiences from brands’ websites and Facebook pages, but email remains their preferred communication channel, marketing software provider ExactTarget found.
ExactTarget’s ‘Marketers from Mars’ study shows 33% of consumers want marketers to invest more in email, 24% want marketers to invest in the brand’s website and 22% of consumers wish marketers to invest in creating a better Facebook experience.
Jeff Rohrs, ExactTarget’s vice president of marketing, explains that consumers are no longer satisfied with “single channel interactions and moving into multi-channel relationships”, and as the report clearly defines, the increase has been somewhat substantial.
“This research provides insight into consumer expectations, offering marketers exclusive new insight on how to avoid the pitfalls of personal biases or becoming a ‘focus group of one’ when creating marketing strategy,” he says.
In terms of the key findings of the research, they include the following:
– 36% of consumers with a smartphone prefer to interact with brands on email, compared to 49% of consumers who do not own a smartphone
– 49% of consumers have made a purchase as a direct result of an email marketing message
– 93% of consumers subscribe to at least one brand’s email, remaining consistent compared to 2010.
– 31% of consumers with a smartphone prefer to interact with brands on Facebook compared to 26% of consumers who do not own a smartphone, making it the second most common place consumers look to connect with brands online
– 58% of consumers have liked a brand on Facebook, a 20% increase since 2010
– 21% of consumers have made a purchase as a result of a message they saw on Facebook.
– Among those actively using Twitter, 46% of consumers follow brands to receive advanced notice about new products
– 12% of consumers follow a brand on Twitter, a 7% increase since 2010.
