A significant number of Australian businesses are now embracing digital marketing, but experts suggest they should also utilise cross-channel marketing to keep up with the rising use and growing culture of social media.
The recent annual Big Australian Report revealed that local businesses sent three times as many mobile messages, ten times as many social media messages and one third more emails last financial year in comparison to the previous financial year.
More than three quarters (77 percent) of large Australian companies are using social networks for lifecycle marketing activities, with 63 percent increasing their focus on Facebook and Twitter.
Mobile messages are also being used as a form of maintaining customer relationships, with nearly one in three companies using text messages for primary alerts such as reminders and confirmations.
Despite the amplified use of mobile and social channels, email remains the central and most used channel, and the highest volume by a considerable margin. The report also revealed a 300 percent increase in the number of emails opened on mobile devices.
In a contemporary move, 62 percent of Australian companies are tailoring their campaigns and messages according to preferences or behaviour of their consumers.
“As Australian companies face the threat of online sales from overseas, they have woken up to the tactics used by these competitors and sought to implement them here” Responsys Asia-Pac Vice President Simon O’Day said.
O’Day believes that this has lead companies to capture and use data to better understand the consumer, which is reflected through the reports findings that 42 percent of direct marketing campaigns include a social element.
“It’s no longer enough to send the same message to all your customers and see if any of them actually care or respond while other companies are creating genuine relationships through a cross-channel approach.”
“Social media has also evolved from experimental to a genuine marketing channel that’s targeted and measureable. This coming year we expect a growing shift from email to cross-channel campaigns that leverage mobile, social and the web. And, segmentation and targeting will continue to be critical to achieving dramatic increases in ROI.”
