Why consumers connect with Marketeers via Email and Social sites

These days the new trend is to connect with the consumers through emails and social networking sites(SNS). For the companies, this is just another avenue for them to reach out to their customers what with the growing internet penetration and growing popularity of such mediums. But why do people support such initiatives?

A research done by ExactTarget in US tells us why consumers (atleast in the US) give their email ids to companies. (refer to the graph above)

Discounts and promotions were the clear winner, followed by freebies and sales. Reasons like wanting to interact with the brand or show their support came in at the bottom of the list.

For social followers, discounts and deals are still highly important. They came in second in a March 2010 survey by Morpace about joining Facebook fan pages.

Chadwick Martin Bailey found they were the primary reason to follow a brand on Facebook or Twitter in February 2010. Razorfish reached similar results in August 2009. (refer second graph)

But the more public nature of opting to join fan pages, like brands or follow marketers means motivations like showing support for the company are also important to social marketing. In the Morpace survey, that was the top reason to join a fan page.

Other researchers also found substantial numbers of respondents eager to show their support or follow brands simply because they were customers.

These motivations bolster assumptions that email is a more passive channel, while the more active brand advocates are to be found following brands on social sites.