Looking for higher email response rates? BIGresearch suggests splitting your target market by the search engines they use.
Email's influence on search engine users varies by search engine and merchandise or product group advertised, according to BIGresearch's recent Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM VII), December 2005.
Over 15,000 survey respondents were asked to identify "which media influences their purchases" for a variety of products. Overall MSN search engine users were most influenced by email, followed closely by Yahoo!, then AOL, Ask Jeeves and lastly, Google.
Email's influence on search engine users varies by merchandise group, with MSN number one in Medicines and Telecom Services, Yahoo number one for Electronics, Car/Truck and Eating Out, AOL number one for Apparel/Clothing and Ask Jeeves (recently renamed Ask) number one for Grocery and Home Improvement.
In conclusion, MSN and Yahoo could be viewed as a tie, with MSN having probably the most consistent numbers.
Interestingly, if we look at the demographic, we find MSN's users are 48.3 years old, with Yahoo's users are the youngest at 42.4.
As far as income, users of MSN's search have an average household income $53,850, Yahoo $52,866 and AOL $50,770.
In terms of ethnicity, Yahoo claims the greatest percentage of Hispanic users with 13.8 percent, MSN 8.8 percent and AOL 7.8 percent.
Regardless of demographics, today's findings suggest that email should be targeted by product and search engine preference in order to influence the end users on their purchase decisions.
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