Brands might be ploughing ever more budget into social media advertising but email marketing continues to be the most effective – and the most popular among UK consumers – when it comes to driving purchases.
So says Marigold’s 2024 Consumer Trends Index, which quizzed 10,389 consumers across the UK, the US, the Benelux Region, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand.
According to the UK results, 54% of Brits have made a purchase from an email over the past 12 months, compared with 50% of consumers globally. Measured in terms of purchase frequency, the success rate for email comfortably exceeds the success rates for social media ads (47%), social media posts (44%), SMS/MMS messages (18%) or banner advertisements (16%) – contradicting some claims for the higher efficacy of those channels.
The report maintains the driving force behind email’s success and continued longevity is UK consumers’ negative view of social media. Nearly three-fifths (58%) of Brits said they are engaging less with social media for the sake of their mental health, and over a third (36%) reported closing or ceasing to use an account over the past year in response to posts they have seen. Two-thirds of consumers (66%) distrust the advertising they see on social media.
Marigold’s 2024 Consumer Trends Index survey also reveals that treating consumers as individuals is not the most important way to earn loyalty: consumers are loyal to brands that provide a consistent experience (94%), use their data in an ethical way (91%) and treat them as an individual (85%).
Meanwhile, perhaps unsurprisingly, personalisation remains critical to engagement, but brands are still not getting it right consistently; more than half (54%) of UK consumers say they have been “frustrated” by irrelevant content or offers over the past six months.
Yet there is a fine line when it comes to targeting. A sizable proportion of consumers find ads based on indirect tracking tools and location-targeted ads from unknown brands decidedly “creepy”.
Even so, a variety of brand interactions satisfy consumer desire for personalisation without setting off alarm bells: the overwhelming majority (87%) of Brits find birthday offers “cool”, while the same sentiment applies to recommendations based on previous purchases (80%), and reminders about items left in their basket (69%).
When it comes to of value brands need to offer in exchange for personal data, UK consumers are overwhelmingly pragmatic: “Discounts or coupons” (93%), or “Loyalty points/rewards” (92%), which frequently manifest as a discounted/lower price are prized far more highly than “community” or “unlocking content” (52% and 59% respectively).
And, despite continued consumer concern over the cost of living, Brits rank product/service quality (68%), convenience (64%) and customer service (60%) more highly than price (57%) when it comes to making a purchase decision.
Marigold SVP customer success EMEA & APAC Jerome Tillotson said: “Years go by and new social platforms enter the market, but email continues to be the most popular channel for driving consumer purchases.
“What the data really underlines is how critical it is to engage customers throughout their lifecycle and across every channel, conversing with them, creating individualised communications with them and, above all, being consistent with them and respectful with their data. Selling to people clearly turns them off; building relationships is what works.”
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