Email still beats social media as the preferred method of interaction and communication between brands and consumers, according to new research.
The study, from email and marketing automation firm Silverpop, found that despite increased awareness, many marketers are still failing to manage and integrate social media into their marketing programmes, with nearly one in five marketers not integrating their marketing programmes at all.
The research was conducted to gain a better understanding of how today’s marketers are using – and plan to use – email, mobile and social forms of communication. According to the survey, most marketers are making some progress towards achieving integrated campaigns across channels, however there is still room for improvement with 80 per cent of UK responders reported being ‘somewhat or not at all integrated’.
In addition to marketers wrestling with integrating their campaigns, preference centres are still focused solely on offering email, leaving plenty of opportunity for savvy marketers to connect with customers and prospects by providing additional options. According to the survey only 5 per cent of UK companies report offering email opt-in on their Facebook page, and only 6 per cent offer email opt-in via SMS.
The increase in smart phones and tablets has inspired two thirds of UK marketers in Silverpop’s survey to either add a mobile app or plan to do so by the end of 2012. However this interest in mobile hasn’t translated to local check-in campaigns, with only 23 per cent of UK marketers currently using or planning to implement local check-ins.
Richard Evans, Director of Marketing EMEA, Silverpop comments: “The hundreds of millions of people who use email and social networks together to engage with brands will only continue to increase, and so marketers who integrate these mediums well, thinking more strategically and leveraging each channel to strengthen the other, will profit rather than struggle in the new interactive marketing mix”.
www.Silverpop.com