Investor Relations

Comprehensive Study Reveals Motives for U.K. Consumer Behavior on Email, Facebook, Twitter

LONDON (9 Nov. 2011) – A new study released today by global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget finds that 73 percent of U.K. online consumers start their day by checking email, while 14 percent start the day with Facebook.

Featured in The Digital Kingdom, the latest in ExactTarget’s Subscribers, Fans and Followers research series, the wide-ranging study examined how U.K. online consumers interact with brands through email, Facebook and Twitter.

“Email is clearly the preferred channel for most online consumers at this point, but Facebook and Twitter are certainly important in their own way,” said Jeff Rohrs, vice president, ExactTarget’s Marketing Research and Education Group. “Marketers who can tap the strengths of each channel will be the ones that are most successful when developing long-term relationships with consumers.”

The Digital Kingdom, ExactTarget’s first U.K. study of online consumers, examines consumer motivations behind subscribing to email, “Liking” a brand on Facebook or following a brand on Twitter.

Key findings of the research include:

• 93 percent of U.K. consumers have provided their email address for the purpose of receiving permission-based emails from at least one company.
• 45 percent of consumers have “Liked” at least one company or brand on Facebook.
• 7 percent of U.K. consumers with a Twitter account “Follow” at least one company or brand.
• 53 percent of consumers said they have become more selective about giving their email address to a company over the past year, while 53 percent have also become more selective about “Liking” companies on Facebook.
• 82 percent of consumers check email daily, while 51 percent check Facebook daily.
• Of the 45 percent of U.K. consumers that have “Liked” a company on Facebook, the most common driver was to receive discounts (49 percent).
• 13 percent of consumers check Twitter daily, with 46 percent of active Twitter users using it for “insider information.”

“In today’s digital world, consumers are interacting with brands across multiple interactive channels,” said Nigel Arthur, ExactTarget’s Managing Director, EMEA. “The Digital Kingdom provides U.K. marketers exclusive insights on consumer behavior and their expectations from marketers as they engage with brands, and how to integrate email, Facebook and Twitter into the broader marketing mix.”

Based on a series of focus groups, interviews and surveys conducted in September 2011, The Digital Kingdom is the eleventh report in ExactTarget’s Subscribers, Fans & Followers research series. For more information about the study and to access the Subscribers, Fans & Followers data, visit http://www.exacttarget.com/subscribers-fans-followers/.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and interactive marketing solutions. The company’s Interactive Marketing Hub technology provides organizations a single solution to connect with customers via email, integrated text messaging, landing pages and social media. Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget powers permission-based multichannel communications for thousands of organizations around the world. For more information, visit www.ExactTarget.com.

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Media Contacts:

Mitch Frazier (ExactTarget) – 317.275.5034 -or- mfrazier@exacttarget.com