Consumers Increasingly Engage Brands Across Multiple Channels

Highlighting the importance of having a strong presence online, new data from Exact Target indicates consumers are increasingly engaging brands through multiple channels.

I’m still surprised at how many business related messages and resumes I get via Facebook.

More than one-third of consumers (40 percent) use social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to supplement information gathered through other marketing channels, including email. Of the survey’s 1,500 respondents, 90 percent of consumers who are fans of a brand on Facebook also subscribe to marketing emails. The same is true of 75 percent of socialites on Twitter.

“Consumers don’t silo their engagement with brands to a single channel, instead they tend to ‘layer’ marketing channels on top of one another to meet their different objectives,” said Morgan Stewart, principal of ExactTarget’s research and education group.

This is especially true of consumers seeking deals and discounts. Nearly half of mothers (45 percent) engage with 10 brands on Twitter and Facebook, while they receive 14 marketing emails daily.

Multichannel marketing will gradually become more vital as social media continues to grow. Facebook recently gained its 500 millionth member, making it the first social networking site to cross that line.