Although social media consumes ever-increasing amounts of our time and attention, another study, this one from Crossview, shows that marketers shouldn’t abandon traditional direct marketing tactics just yet. Interviewing 160 shoppers in North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois and Kansas, Crossview’s study showed that retail shoppers value promotions highly, and that they prefer to receive them via email and direct mail.
Looking at the breakdown of how the respondents preferred to receive marketing materials from retailers, 37% preferred email, 23% preferred direct mail, 18% preferred text messages, 11% preferred in-store and only 9% preferred social media.
Of course, social media marketing is still in its infancy. As customers begin to spend more and more time on social media sites and become more comfortable interacting with companies and brands in that space, their preferences will likely shift. In fact, companies from Einstein Bros Bagels to Dell have already used social media for promotions with great results.
In a press release, Mark Fodor, Chief Executive Officer at CrossView, commented on the results of the study:
“The survey findings reinforce how important promotions are in influencing consumer purchasing decisions. It also shows that delivery methods and consumer preferences are across the board, which means that retailers need to be able to communicate brand, product and promotional messaging consistently across channels. Consumers have very definite ideas of how they want to receive promotional materials. Regardless of which technologies are ‘hot,’ shoppers expect to navigate between channels based on convenience and personal preference.”
In such a rapidly changing marketing climate, how can you ensure that your campaigns have the highest possible reach and the best possible response rates? It’s simple-don’t put all of your eggs in one basket! Tools like Dukky’s personalized URLs allow you to design promotions that can be initially distributed by email and direct mail, then shared via social media. Dukky also allows you to poll your customers to see how they’d prefer to receive promotions in the future, if you’d like, and our analytics let you see which social networking sites your customers are using.
