In today’s consumer landscape where loyalty is fluid, omnichannel is a reality and behaviors have changed, personalization is no longer an asset for brands.
According to Movable Ink Audience of a According to the 2022 report, 61% of consumers said they were more likely to purchase from brands that personalize customer interactions. Beyond this immediate conversion driver, the study also showed a strong correlation between personalized communications and long-term customer loyalty, with 68% saying they are likely to stay loyal to a brand if this brand engages and establishes a personal relationship with them.
The research surveyed 3,000 consumers based in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland in April 2022 as part of a mission to find out what types of information help consumers with their buying decisions and what drives them to disengage. Two factors essential to the success of every brand in creating the best possible customer experience.
Becki Francis, director of retail strategy at Movable Ink, unveiled the report last month at Think Summit London, Europe’s first-ever edition of the premier digital marketing conference.
The common thread woven into each speaker’s presentation, representing companies like Uber, Warner Bros. Discovery and Hotter Shoes, was the importance of data-driven personalization.
Key Findings from Movable Ink’s Audience of One 2022 Report
As well as boosting conversion and loyalty, research from Movable Ink found that nearly half of respondents (46%) said personalization actually builds trust in a brand.
Exploring these dynamics shows that customers who feel loyal to a brand will act on this brand affinity in different ways. For example, loyalty is not always linked to purchase, it can also take the form of a voluntary exchange of information, with 60% of customers surveyed saying they are ready to share more information about themselves with the brands to which they feel loyal.
So, in an age where third-party data is on the way out and first- and zero-party data is more important than ever, it’s essential to encourage customers to feel comfortable sharing their preferences in a proactive. It is equally important for brands to prove their value to customers through this data for a mutually beneficial “data exchange”.
When it comes to motivations for unsubscribing, the research revealed several insights. After frequency, irrelevant content was the top cause of unsubscribe with around 40% of respondents citing this concern. Consumers don’t care about the content of a brand’s marketing calendar. They have the power to press mute when content is not relevant to them in their current journey, and they won’t hesitate to use that power.
Brands Do It Right: From Media to Travel
Speaking at the Think Summit, Pier Luigi Spagna, vice president of customer marketing at Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fredrik Salzedo, Director, Global MarTech & CRM, explained how the company found a way to personalize its content during the Winter Olympics.
To drive engagement and audience, they leveraged the most effective marketing channel, email, to create highly curated, relevant, and personalized experiences for their subscribers. Powered by Movable Ink, they created a bespoke live “medal board” that could be used for their daily recap emails triggered in 9 different countries in 8 languages to excite and delight Olympic Games fans in a hyper- localized. Leveraging Movable Ink technology, they were able to generate 45 variations of the medal table from a single piece of code, highlighting the recipient’s nation on the leaderboard.
Similarly, one of the largest and most successful transatlantic tour operators used Movable Ink to put travelers’ health first by sending 1:1 communications straight to their inbox when they needed it most. .
From the onset of the pandemic until now, they have made health and safety a top priority, always ensuring that their customers are well informed and have a worry-free experience, despite the unpredictability of recent times.
Their marketing team needed a way to send personalized communications to each of their customers, no matter where they were on the map. This was crucial in providing relevant protocols and requirements for the client’s individual destination so they could plan their trips accordingly.
Movable Ink’s web cropping feature helped them reduce manual tasks in favor of automation. The most recent travel requests were automatically pulled from their website and fed into the inbox, saving them hundreds of hours of production time. Through this, they could also ensure that all the information the customer receives is timely and relevant.
Regardless of how people engage or buy, survey respondents in the Audience of One report reaffirmed that personalized marketing messages are the best way to earn their purchases and, most importantly, their loyalty. Additionally, privacy and personalization can indeed co-exist, but brands need to demonstrate clear value in exchange for data.
Finally, more than ever, the consumer is in control. They have the power to opt out or opt out. Embracing the right technology to facilitate a personalized user experience can be a brand’s greatest ally. Personalization has the power to make consumers’ lives easier and ultimately give them back their time by showing them only what is most relevant to them. But with great power comes greater responsibility; getting the personalization wrong can be detrimental. One in four consumers say receiving inaccurate information would cause them to unsubscribe, making it essential for business to achieve data-driven marketing personalization.
To download Movable Ink’s Audience of One report for more.