Study: Consumers Prefer E-mail Marketing

When it comes to receiving a digital marketing message, e-mail is consumers' first choice, according to new research from Epsilon, a permission e-mail marketing company.

Eighty-seven percent of North Americans and 74 percent of Europeans rely on the medium as their primary form of exchange with companies, per the Global Consumer E-mail Study, released earlier this week. E-mail is also prevalent in the Asia Pacific regions according to 64 percent of respondents. The survey polled 4,000 consumers in 13 countries.

More than a third of global consumers said they have opted to receive information via e-mail versus traditional forms of communication, such as in-person sales calls and mailings like retail discount offers.

They are more likely request e-mail communications when it comes from banks (40 percent). Thirty-eight percent prefer e-mail in lieu of direct mail offers while 34 percent chose e-mail over telemarketing.

Consumers that have shown the best response rate to e-mail live in Asia Pacific. They are the most likely to click on a Web site or make a purchase after opening an e-mail. That region also leads in PDA e-mail usage at 32 percent, compared to North America and Europe (9 percent and 7 percent, respectively).

Research shows that other forms of digital communication also vary by region. Twenty-eight percent of Asia Pacific respondents use instant messaging, compared to only 16 percent of Europeans and 6 percent of North Americans. Social networking and SMS mediums rated low across the board at less than 8 percent.