A new report has revealed that business to business email marketing remains the most popular way of communicating with customers.
The research, which was carried out by Econsultancy, found that 86 per cent of companies and brands opted to use this method of communicating with their customers and prospective customers.
Email marketing was also the go-to method when it came to communicating offers. Eighty per cent of firms used email marketing for voicing product and service updates, whilst 70 per cent turned to the method for feedback. Sixty per cent used email marketing as a means of communicating customer service options to their existing clients.
Writing for Econsultancy, email marketing expert Richard Lees said, “Marketers must ensure consistency of data collection across channels to smooth the passage of data into a single database.
“Good practice in this area will not only make data integration easier, it will also make compliance simpler,” he added.
The Econsultancy research also revealed an ever-increasing challenge facing marketers: How best to put together information from numerous different channels in order to gain the most comprehensive and workable data list.
When looking at what works best within the marketing sphere, the Centre for Retail Research reported that utilising social networks such as Twitter can be a positive step for many companies, no matter what their size or sector. The centre found that the most successful small businesses were using Twitter and other social media sites such as Facebook as an integral part of their online marketing strategies.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, told Equimedia, “There are a lot of new retailers selling interesting products that aren't easily available elsewhere where tweeting can be [used] about new products, extensions of ranges and new shops.”
However, despite the positive impact that Twitter can have on a business, Professor Bamfield warned that "you've got to have lots of new things coming through before you can do it".
Virgin Media Business recently carried out an investigation into the retail sector's usage of Twitter and discovered that, out of 500 UK businesses questioned, a tiny nine per cent currently utilised the micro-blogging site for business purposes.
“It's probably true that the smaller stores have not got on this bandwagon yet, but this may simply reflect the fact that they're very busy, they don't have the skills and they don't see why they should bother,” he added.
With online shopping sales in the UK increased each year, the importance of opening up to new customers and keeping existing ones happy is more relevant than ever before. Using social networks can help to achieve this.
Figures from the recent IMRG CapGemini e-Retail Sales Index revealed that online shopping rose by 19 per cent during the first quarter of 2011 as opposed to the same time period in 2010. 
