Study: Consumers Prefer Priority Info Via SMS

SMS has become an essential communications tool for retailers as online and mobile shopping grow. In fact, 85% of consumers in a new survey said they would prioritize unopened text messages over e-mails and push notifications from apps. Direct Marketing News magazine recently reported on a survey of 1,000 UK consumers by eDigitalResearch, which showed texting as the most effective way to reach consumers in real time with time-sensitive information. The survey results are especially pertinent for retailers, suggesting they need to implement a comprehensive communications strategy that includes multiple channels to engage with consumers across the entire life cycle, said Steve Brockway, director of research (UK) at eDigitalResearch, in a news release about the study. The research not only showed that SMS is preferred (by 85%) for the delivery of priority information, such as order status alerts, but that 53% of respondents cited SMS as the preferred method of communication when on the go, and half said they'd choose SMS for day-of notifications. It's not an entirely text-happy world for marketers: 59% of respondents prefer to receive promotional information via e-mail, and 54% said they always or mostly always open offers received via e-mail. E-mail also had the highest open rate for marketing information, although closely followed by text messages. However, trust remains an obstacle for retailers when it comes to mobile technology. Only 43% of respondents said they were willing to share their mobile phone numbers with retailers out of fear they would be bombarded with irrelevant communications. For more detailed survey results, read http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-strategy/dont-text-and-drive-do-text-and-market/article/416397/

E-mail Beats Text in Tapping Luxury Brand Buyers

Luxury brands seeking affluent customers should favor e-mail over mobile text messaging, according to 2014 first-quarter data from the Luxury Institute. As recently reported by eMarketer, the Luxury Institute found that just 17% of U.S. affluent internet users, those with an income of $150,000 or more, had signed up to receive, or were somewhat to very likely to opt in to, text messages from a luxury brand. Even tech-savvy, affluent millennials were not interested in luxury brand messages popping up on their phones: Only around a quarter said they had or would be interested in receiving such communications, a percentage similar to Generation Xers. In contrast, 49% of respondents said they had opted in, or were somewhat to very likely to opt in, to receiving e-mails from a luxury brand. Luxury brand e-mails are likely to do even better with younger affluents, however. The overall e-mail acceptance of 49% was skewed lower by boomers (44%) compared with millennials (61%) and GenXers (54%). The study held another discouraging note for digital luxury-brand marketers: Digital generally doesn't appear to play a major role in U.S. affluent internet users’ shopping or purchase processes for luxury items. For example, only 22% of all affluent respondents (27% for techie millennials) said they researched luxury brands online and then purchased in-store. For more, see http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Affluents-Dont-Want-Texts-Luxury-Brands/1010867