According to a report on ‘Global Consumer Email’ by digital marketing technologies and services company, Epsilon International, millennials around the globe are receptive to digital marketing messages.

The term millennials is used to describe 18 to 25-year-olds consumers.

The report indicated that millennials in Australia and globally are wired and willing to receive commercial email messages. However they are also more wary and concerned with security and identity theft.

The survey highlights that usage of instant messaging, social networking and text/SMS messages tools is quite evenly dispersed among 18 to 25-year-olds in Australia. One-third of millennials that responded cited instant messaging as their primary form of communication (33%), whereas 25% chose both email and social networks, and 17% cited text/SMS.

The use of mobile devices to access emails is low across all age segments in Australia, which is likely the result of both high data communication costs and a poor wireless infrastructure compared to other countries in the Asia Pacific region.

In addition, Australian millennials are also more receptive to emails containing offline specials, such as special offers from catalogue companies (58%) and those from traditional retailers (50%), when communications are kept on a weekly interval.

They are interested in receiving many different kinds of information on a weekly basis, including entertainment (66.7%), work-related news (50%), beauty advice (41.7%), account statement (41.7%) and electronics (33.3%).

However, the study also reveals that millenials’ intolerance to over-emailing, irrelevant content and unsolicited emails is not only greater than the other age segments, but a higher percentage will also use the ‘report spam’ button to unsubscribe from irrelevant emails.

Dominic Powers, senior vice president, Asia Pacific, Epsilon International, explained that the research shows that it is very important for marketers to understand where their customers and prospects are in the customer lifecycle so that they continue to deliver content and offers of value. A product or service a consumer wanted three or six months ago is likely not relevant now.

“This global research highlights that marketers anywhere in the world should focus on segmentation strategies that address the needs of the age groups within their customer base. The needs and desires of these groups are clear, and we regularly see that a targeted approach based on age segmentation can drive significant improvements in campaign performance,” said Powers.

Powers also stressed that this consumer group has a growing disposable income far greater than previous generations and as they advance in their careers, their purchasing power will only increase.

“They are a smart and switched on segment whose attention spans are stretched; they are also more predisposed to making decisions in networks. It is important therefore to ensure that communications are driven by just-in time life cycle marketing to maximise conversion opportunities in addition to word-of-mouth and network promotion of offers or brands,” Powers asserted.