Closing the Personalisation Gap between brands and consumers is harder than marketers think.
They may understand that it’s their responsibility to meet consumers’ expectations. Hence why the marketing industry’s current buzzwords – personalisation, individualisation, customer profiling – all speak to that same concern: consumers increasingly expect offers and promotions to be targeted directly to their unique preferences, interests, and buying behaviors.
According to a recent study by Forrester, 66% of marketers rate their personalisation efforts as “very good” or “excellent.”
The Great Disconnect
Many consumers, however, don’t feel the same way. 44% told Forrester they receive too many offers and promotions. Even worse, 40% said that most promotions “don’t deliver anything of interest.”
What’s driving the disconnect? In part, the personalisation gap involves a chicken-and-egg issue: 45% of marketers told Forrester when it came to their current personalised marketing strategy, their top concern was that “consumers delete most email offers and promotions without reading them”.
With so many marketers believing their personalisation tactics are “very good” or “excellent,” that claim of concern is akin to placing the blame on customers’ shoulders. We’re doing a great job giving customers what they want – our customers are just ignoring it.
In short, marketers are failing to meet their customers where they live.
Across the board, consumers engage with targeted offers from their favorite brands when those offers are delivered on their preferred engagement channels. If marketers are so worried customers are deleting their emails, maybe they shouldn’t send emails! Instead, shouldn’t they try to reach 100% of their base by deciding, in real time, which channel the individual recipient is most likely to engage with – be it email, SMS, browser pop-up, or otherwise – instead of making that decision for them?
It’s Not You, It’s Me
The “if only they stopped ignoring us” thought process also ignores a more central tenet of marketing (and of business at large)and that is: the customer is always right. If 40% of consumers say most promotions “don’t deliver anything of interest,” they’re right. The responsibility falls back to marketers to revisit their messaging strategies and optimise them more effectively.
Personalisation can be a huge boon to marketing performance. However, if executed poorly – and without a mind for the effectiveness of the channel – its value is nil. Acquiring data to improve personalisation is also a cyclical process: the more consumers engage, the more intelligence you can cultivate and the more customised offers you can send.
If your customers are ignoring your offers, it’s because they’re not personalised properly.
It’s time to take action and try something new. OtherLevels can help bridge the divide between your offers and what your customers want – and make the marketing sector’s favourite buzzwords work more strongly in your favor.
