RISMEDIA, April 22, 2011—(eM+C)—Mobile adoption of e-mail and social networking use is on the rise, according to a new whitepaper from Merkle, titled View from the Digital Inbox 2011. The report surveyed nearly 3,500 online adults, and found that consumer adoption of digital media and mobile technology is accelerating the rate of digital convergence.
E-mail is the preferred method of commercial communication with a brand for 74% of respondents. In fact, it’s the favored method over direct mail campaigns by a margin of five to one. E-mail is checked quite frequently via smartphones, with 55% of respondents saying they use the mobile Web to check their e-mail, up from 44% last year.
The most effective mobile marketing method is the fast-growing arena of digital coupons. Fifty-six percent of mobile coupon recipients have redeemed coupons sent to their phones.
Facebook leads the way for social media platforms, with nearly two-thirds of respondents checking the site weekly. Even 44% of the respondents over the age of 65 said they use Facebook. Seventy-three percent have liked or become a fan of a brand on Facebook, with the average number of brands being liked by a user standing at 12. Thirty-four percent of those that like certain brands or companies do so because they genuinely like the brand, and 24% do so in order to gain access to exclusive deals and offerings.
The only mobile feature that seems to be lagging behind is location-based sites, which are used by just 9% of the smartphone users surveyed. This percentage is expected to increase in the future, along with mobile shopping, as only 13% of respondents said they’ve made a purchase via their mobile device.
