| Estimated reading time: 3 minutes Audience: Interest in Facebook and Email Marketing Top takeaways: ? The most common reason consumers subscribe to email and Facebook ?like? a business is to receive offers and discounts. ? Loyalty is created between consumers and brands when the consumer feels the relationship has equal commitment from both sides. ? Offers and discounts are a clear way a business can show customers their ongoing commitment to a mutually beneficial relationship. |
Marketers live at the powerful intersection of research, psychology and sales. We study people?s motivations so we can convince them to buy our products and services.
Our aim to influence public opinion on behalf of brands and business is an endgame shared by all of society?s major institutions, from politics to religion to parenting.
While underlying human motivations don?t change much, our means of communicating do. The research around how consumers use media to interact with each other and with businesses give us marketers hints on the tone and message we can use for marketing on each channel.
A new study gives us another data point on what motivates consumers to interact with brands on two specific channels: email and Facebook.
Here are the findings from eMarketer by the numbers.
Reasons U.S. email users subscribe to emails from a business or nonprofit:
Reasons U.S. Facebook users ?like? a business or nonprofit:
So what are the reasons consumers give for aligning with brands via email and social media? Receiving offers and discounts is the top reason people subscribe to emails and engage with brands on social media channels. Supporting the business and showing others that they support the brand is at the lower end of the motivational spectrum. Now that we know what drives the behavior, let?s look deeper into the motivation.
The most successful brands today understand and leverage human motivations to create a loyal following. Stories of businesses that have successfully created a cult from a brand are at the center of Douglas Atkin?s The Culting of Brands: When Customers Become True Believers.
Before we go any further, know that ?cult? is not a term used here to denote a group of gullible or flawed individuals. Cult dynamics are a normal part of society of which we all take part. Group membership and identification is at the core of the term, and is what I?m referring to here. Atkins dissects the process of building and sustaining a brand cult so that the process may be duplicated.
In a chapter titled ?Commitment Is A Two-Way Street?, we get some insight into the importance of offering discounts to loyal subscribers:
?As with any loving and real relationship, a company must continually commit to its customers, renew its beliefs with real product and service experiences every quarter. Apathy is the enemy in a cult relationship. Every action, every offering, every communication must be scrutinized for its commitment to the membership.?
People are more likely to cultivate relationships that feel that all parties are equal contributors to each others? needs. Offers and discounts are one way a business can demonstrate a commitment to providing value to customers. Again, from the same chapter:
?If [the customer's] commitment is not matched by an equivalent reward, including the feeling that the leadership is as committed and has paid an equal price, then the results can be disastrous for the cult. This concept of ?the trade of commitment? is equally true in the world of business. For cultlike devotion to a brand, there must be a corresponding investment from the company.?
Remember that every subscriber to your email list and every fan of your brand on Facebook is a hard-won follower who must not be taken for granted. In every communication you have with them, be clear about what you?re giving them to make their life better. Research like the eMarketer report gives us the data to give our customers exactly what they?re looking for when they join the mailing list and like our Facebook pages. Any failure to deliver on your part breaks the mutual commitment you made to each other and weakens your standing as a brand.
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