How Students Communicate Online

Today’s high school and college students are hardly newcomers when it comes to email. The mean number of email addresses per student surveyed is 2.4. Most college students have had an email address for about 8 years, with the average student getting an initial email address at the age of 13. When students choose a primary email service, Gmail is the clear favorite. 32% of college students use Gmail as their primary email address, 19% yahoo, 18% MSN/Hotmail and only about 17% use their school email address as their primary address. If you’re looking at marketing to this group through online channels, Google’s advertising network is one to seriously consider, according to a recent Student Survey by eROI.

Effectiveness of Email Marketing
Students can be an elusive demographic for marketers. Staying on top of constantly evolving trends is the key to gaining trust and staying relevant to the student market, but another challenge in reaching them is knowing which channel will carry and present your message most effectively. Students, on average, read marketing emails on a “rarely to never” basis, with 61% falling into this category. Only 16% are reading marketing emails on a frequent basis, while 66% of students rarely or never take action on marketing emails. Most college students do not feel that companies are effectively speaking to them personally.

Most college students do not feel that companies’ advertising is not effectively speaking to them personally:

* 60% of students take action upon receiving an email only if they are interested in the product
* 47% take action if they are attracted to a special offer
* 11% of students take action because of the design of an email

Email vs. Social Networks
It’s clear that students have adopted email, but students were also among the earliest adopters of social networks. Are students moving away from email and toward social networks as their preferred method of online communication? Email is a dying channel, especially among students. Speculations that social networking has taken over and that students are now using email primarily to sign up for social networking sites and receive email alerts. 36% of students use email alerts to keep up to date on what’s happening on their social networks and only about one-quarter of students originally got an email address for social networking purposes. Approximately one-quarter got an email address for the ability to buy online. The majority of students (81%) got an email address for communicating with family and 52% for communicating with friends.

83% of college students use Facebook, 65% use MySpace and 21% use LinkedIn. With over one-fifth of college students using LinkedIn, this is one area of opportunity for marketers to reach students where their competitors may not be. Overall there is a very minor increase in email usage since getting an initial email address. It appears that students had a real and determined need for email when they first set up an email address – not just for the purpose of setting up a social network.

Student Trends – Communication Habits and Preferences
Relevancy is more important than ever, considering the amount of Spam flooding the average student’s inbox. With over two-thirds of students checking email at least once per day, and 55% of those checking more than 3 times per day, there’s no doubt that students are aware of the emails that hit their inbox and are looking for those compelling emails that go above and beyond to resonate with them.

The study identifies the channels are students using most. The preferred means of communication for college students are:

* Text messaging (37%)
* Email (26%)
* Social networking IM (15%)
* Instant messaging (11%)
* Social networking email (11%)
* And 12% of students check email on a mobile device

Ultimately, marketers need to ensure their products are relevant and take the time to craft emails that truly speak to students. Overall, email plays an important role in college students’ life as a personal communication device, but not as a major marketing channel. Ultimately, marketers need to ensure their products are relevant and take the time to craft emails that truly speak to students. Consider email in your marketing mix to college students, but creating a comprehensive marketing plan that is made up of social networking, email marketing and text messaging is going to be the most effective way to reach your audience and gain mindshare.

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