Digital Reponse Media http://www.digitalresponsemedia.com/news-1-email-marketing-news/email-marketing-more-influential-than-social-media-386.aspx

Email marketing messages are more likely to influence the purchasing decisions of 18 to 34-year-olds than social media marketing campaigns, a new study has suggested.

Conducted by ExactTarget and Ball State University, the research also found that while teenagers are most likely to use social networking than any other age group, they are also the most influenced by direct mail and email marketing.

Other key findings included the statistics that a fifth of tech-savvy consumers have signed up to mobile marketing messages, 94 per cent of retired consumers have based their purchasing decisions on direct marketing in the past and 92 per cent of professionals have shopped online.

“It is too easy to assume that the media consumers choose for their own news, information and entertainment are, by default, the best media to use for marketing messages,” commented Mike Bloxham, director of insight and research at Ball State University’s Centre for Media Design.

In August, a JupiterResearch study indicated that 44 per cent of consumers have based a buying decision on email marketing communications this year.