New Research Details Why Consumers Break Up with Brands on Email, Facebook and Twitter

More Than 90% of Consumers Unsubscribe, Unfan or Unfollow Because of Too Frequent, Irrelevant or Boring Communications

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new study released today by ExactTarget and CoTweet finds more than 90 percent of consumers have “broken up” with at least one brand on Facebook, email or Twitter because of irrelevant, too frequent or boring marketing messages.

“Consumers remain willing to engage with marketers via the inbox, Facebook and Twitter”

Featured in The Social Break-Up, the study of more than 1,500 consumers identifies how people are changing their online behaviors and details top motivations for unfanning, unfollowing and unsubscribing from marketing campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and email.

“Consumers remain willing to engage with marketers via the inbox, Facebook and Twitter,” said Jeff Rohrs, principal of ExactTarget’s Marketing Research and Education Group. “However, consumers understand now more than ever that they are in control of marketers’ messages and will punish irrelevant, voluminous or boring messages by cutting off marketers means of direct communication.”

Key results of the study include:

• 91 percent of consumers have unsubscribed from permission-based marketing emails.
• 77 percent of consumers report being more cautious about providing their email address to companies versus last year
• 81 percent of consumers have either “unliked” or removed a company’s posts from their Facebook news feed.
• 71 percent of consumers report being more selective about “liking” a company on Facebook versus last year.
• 51 percent of consumers expect that a “like” will result in marketing communications from brands while 40 percent do not believe it should result in marketing communications.
• 41 percent of consumers have “unfollowed” a company on Twitter.

“Email, Facebook and Twitter each offer a unique way to develop relationships with consumers,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “The Social Break-Up offers new research into the specific actions that drive subscribers, fans and followers away and provides new insights to help marketers strike the right balance and build sustainable, long-term relationships with customers online.”

The Social Break-Up is the eighth research brief in ExactTarget’s and CoTweet’s Subscribers, Fans and Followers research series. The series provides exclusive insight into how consumers interact with brands online based on a series of primary focus groups, interviews and surveys. For more information about the study and to download a complimentary copy of The Social Break-Up and prior reports, visit www.ExactTarget.com/sff.

The launch of the research follows news from ExactTarget and Tokyo-based NTT Communications Corporation on the companies’ partnership to bring CoTweet, ExactTarget’s social media management platform, to the Japanese market. The partnership will make CoTweet’s enterprise Twitter and Facebook management, engagement and measurement application available in Japanese by the end of first quarter 2011. To learn more about CoTweet’s Enterprise social media platform, visit www.CoTweet.com.

About ExactTarget
ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and interactive marketing solutions. The company’s Interactive Marketing Hub^TM 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 including Expedia.com, Best Buy, Aurora Fashions, Papa John’s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co., Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.