Marketers have a slew of on and offline marketing options today. However, according to research from MarketingSherpa, there’s a disconnect between marketer’s preferred practices and consumer preferences.

For example, email is the most preferred communication method for consumers to receive regular updates and promotions from companies they are interested in doing business with (60%). Email is also the top brand marketer medium for communicating with consumers at a nearly universal 90%. But differences emerge in how these emails are sent and received.

Insights from MarketingSherpa’s research include:

• More than three quarters of brand marketers (76%) say they sent subscribers emails at a pre-determined frequency chosen by the brand. However, only a quarter (24%) of consumers say they desire to receive emails at a pre-determined frequency chosen by brands.

• Nearly half of consumers (49%) prefer to subscribe to emails at the frequency they choose, while only 14% of brand marketers report that they actually send out email updates based on their subscribers’ preferences.

• Social media is extremely popular with brands—77% of brand marketers offer their customers the opportunity to follow them on social media. But one in five consumers (20%) want to receive regular updates and promotions from companies they are interested in by following them on social media.

• Traditional postal mail remains popular with consumers; 54% indicate they want to receive physical mail updates and promotions from companies they are interested in. Yet, only 19% of brands provide print updates in the mail, likely due to their cost.

The results are from a pair of consumer and marketer online surveys conducted by MarketingSherpa. The consumer survey was fielded from Aug. 20-24, 2015 with 2,021 adult respondents, ages 18 and over. The brand marketer survey was fielded from September 15-28, 2015, attracting 455 marketer respondents.