Email beats social for retail offers

The folly of brands relying on social media channels to get youngsters to engage with retailer promotions has been exposed in a new survey which shows email is the top driver of response.
The research, conducted by RapidCampaign, found that among 16 to 24-year-olds – so-called millennials – email is the channel of choice for finding out about marketing promotions, followed by a retailer’s website.
Of the 2000 consumers surveyed, 76% of consumers said they prefer to hear about retailer promotions in their email inbox, followed 23% who prefer the retailer’s website.
Facebook was the third top retailer promotion channel, cited by 15%, but it peaked in preference with a slightly older age group of 25 to 34-year-olds, with 27% stating the social network was how they wanted to learn about promotions.
RapidCampaign chief executive Marko Luhtala said: “We are seeing a trend among marketers in finding promotions as not only an effective engagement tool at the top of the sales funnel, bringing in customers that would not buy from you normally, but also as a conversion tool closer to the point of sale
“With the significant resource marketers are putting into channels including email, social networks, PPC and search, engaging promotions are an invaluable missing link in converting more of that hard-earned traffic.
“High street retailers have long known the benefits of putting promotions in a shop front window or in store, and that strategy has not stopped being effective. In fact with younger generations showing they are the most eager to see promotions on retailers’ digital shop fronts and stores, and marketers spending more on driving traffic from external channels, it will be increasingly powerful approach.”