Email dominates as preferable consumer marketing tool

Email is still the preferred way to receive promotions and marketing offers, says research by Adobe. A whopping 63 per cent of consumers prefer to be contacted in this way, putting it ahead of direct mail at 20 per cent, social media at six per cent, and text messaging at a mere four per cent.

The data shows that consumers are receptive to email marketing, but remember: the majority of offers sent by brands remained unopened. On average, consumers are only interested enough to open around a quarter of the email offers they receive – 24 per cent for those received via work email and 26 per cent for those received via personal email.

What puts people off? Having to scroll too much to read an entire email, the layout not being optimised for mobile, and having to wait for images to load, revealed the report.

“Email continues to be one of the most powerful marketing channels,” said John Watton, EMEA Marketing Director at Adobe.

“And while email marketers have a devoted audience, they need to keep it relevant to succeed. The days of blast-style emails are over and brands need to focus on getting their messages to the right person, with the right content, at the right place and at just the right moment. The best way to keep consumers engaged is through more dynamic and real-time personalised content with contextually relevant offers and promotions.”