Brand Advocates Prefer eMail. They Prefer Accessing Via Mobile.
Perhaps, direct email marketing is not as quaint as we have come to believe. As eMarketer reports, 57% of “brand advocates” who share their enthusiasm for a particular brand, prefer to do so through email. Another 35% does it with Facebook. The majority of them receive this information and make their recommendations via mobile.
The task for marketers and advertisers is to make those direct emails and Facebook ads easy to share. Brand advocates may of course simply forward a link or a screen capture in an email via mobile. But this data suggests that identifying those advocates through media like Facebook, then targeting those advocates directly with an email, will perhaps tweak an already strong brand ambassador to act on the advertiser’s behalf.
Brand advocates are what eMarketer calls a “volunteer arm of supporters who disseminate recommendations to friends and family.” eMarketer was reporting on a January 2012 study from the Social media influencer and advocacy company, Zuberance, which observed that the U.S. Internet users are making more recommendations than ever before, and across industries; they may recommend a consumer electronic (the most common category), restaurants, beauty products or services like insurance. On average, the influencers surveyed made nine recommendations per year, and 16% of them made more than 15 recommendations.
Zuberance describes individuals who make more than one recommendation a month as brand advocates, and observe that this category is growing. As of January 2012, 68% of Internet users were in this category.
When it comes to the recommendations they make, Internet users talk about technology most often, at 25%, followed by restaurants and dining (15%). Household items, including home furnishings, is third at 10%. This is one of the few times home furnishings has been listed so high. It is an excellent sign for the industry.
The Zuberance study also found that 67% of brand advocates were comfortable recommending brands, products and services related to both professional and personal purchases.
The devices they are making these recommendations on are mobile. It is the preferred platform more and more every day.
If you want to reach your potential customer now, think mobile.
We live in a new DNAge.
Think MOBILEFirst.
