Only 37% of Marketers know Customer Channel Preferences

October 7, 2009

Study Finds Less Than Half of All Marketers Know Customer Communication Preferences ExactTarget Launches Marketing Preferences Research Bundle Featuring New Studies on Marketer’s Multichannel Efforts, Customer Channel Preferences

A new study has found while more than 85 percent of all marketers are executing multichannel campaigns, less than half know what channels their customers prefer.

Marketer's Communication Tools: SMS, Email, Direct Mail, Phone, Online, Social and Mobile Marketing

“The bottom line is that in an industry where new digital communications make it easier to send a variety of messages, it’s imperative that marketers not only send the right message, to the right person, at the right time, but that they use the right channel as well,” said Morgan Stewart, ExactTarget’s director of research and strategy, in a release.

The study found that:

80% of marketers claim customer preference is a key factor but only 12% ask customers their preferred frequency for email messages.

47% of marketers do not take any actions based on customer preferences.

27% of marketers measure whether efforts in one channel boost results in another.

Other valuable information from the ExactTarget Email sponsored study shows that:

• 70% of consumers who visit Facebook at least once a month and say they are a “fan” of at least one company/brand and claim they have never given a company permission to send them information through a social network.
• Consumers prefer email more than 3-to-1 for marketing communications.
• 50% of consumers consider unsolicited messages from companies whom they regularly conduct business unacceptable — up from 26 percent in 2008.