Hi Everyone

Interesting question isn’t it?

A study by Exact Target in the U.S. researched this very question
and suggested if we do not know whether our customers are reaching
for smartphones to check Facebook, updating their Twitter status or
logging onto laptops to check email then it’s time we should.

Exact Target suggests whatever our customers do first in the morning
will drive their on-line behaviours during the day.

And what this then does is drive their motivators for on-line interactions.

Let me explain this a little simpler.

Research reveals:

• 58% of consumers check their emails as their first
  on-line activity in the morning;
• 20% will check out a website first; and
• 11% of on-line consumers go straight to Facebook.

People who begin their day by checking emails are most likely to
continue to do it during the day and are susceptible to on-line offers;
specials and deals which may land in their in-box.

People who go surfing a particular website or sites first generally look for
distinctive brands

whereas…

People who go straight to Facebook are looking for social interaction and
therefore looking for entertainment, and personal connection.

So, what does this mean to the email marketer ?

Well, everything.

If we know what our customers are doing first thing in the morning then
we can craft our messages especially for them.

For example:

Email First Customers
Email First customers don’t wish to get too personal with you.

They are happy to identify you through your brand or name and are
likely to share any information you send them via email to their friends .

They engage with you because they have opt.ed-in to a list to receive
your messages and welcome your marketing emails

but…

they are 5 times unlikely to share these email messages via Facebook.
Facebook for them is a social medium not a transactional one.

Facebook First Customers
These are our social creatures. They are most likely to identify with
a Brand via a Facebook Fan Page and are happy to share their experience
with their ‘Facebook Friends’ via Facebook.

They use email throughout the day but are highly likely to share information
they discovered on a Facebook Fan page to their friends via email.

Email to them is not a social-discovery-exchanging media.
Email is used in a more ‘corporate’ manner.

Sure, they will engage with friends via email because they are social.
They are more likely to exchange their personal buying experiences
via Facebook.

So, why should all this research matter to you, the marketer?
Until now most marketers have used the same message in their
emails as they would on Facebook in the belief as long as our message
is out there it will be OK.

But this strategy is now clearly wrong.

Clear, concise, and precise tactics are now required to the email marketer
or to the larger extent any marketer.

The tactics you need to engage with your customers are changing.

Don’t get left behind.

In my next message I am going to share with you social media tactics
you simply must employ if you don’t wish to lose your customers
attention.

Quite simply, knowing where your customers begin
their daily on-line activities will be your key to success.

Cheers and Great Selling
Kurt