Digital marketing is everywhere. Pretty much all brands have an online presence and, consequently, a defined digital marketing strategy. However, a recent study reveals that sending irrelevant content to clients has terrible consequences and is one of the main reasons why customers abandon their relationship with a brand.
Nowadays, most companies use the Internet to communicate with their customers. The rise of e-commerce, especially after the global pandemic caused by Covid-19, has promoted the expansion of digital points of sale, forcing many companies to take the leap towards digital transformation, to define new digital marketing strategies and to start takin care of their online customer experience.
With time, marketing is moving towards direct and personalized communication with the customer through digital channels. The rise of email marketing is one of the clearest examples of this type of communication in the digital sphere. Organizations are using email, social media and other non-physical touch points to create links with potential customers, keep them informed and encourage purchase.
Companies were already communicating with their customers before the Internet existed. However, the new medium has increased brands' communication possibilities, promoting, for example, a move towards personalization-based marketing.
According to Infosys data, 86% of Americans say personalization impacts their shopping experience and 31% state a preference for personalized customer experiences. Moreover, 44% of customers want brands to deliver consistent customer experiences and narratives across all of their touchpoints, both physical and digital.
This data confirms that a large proportion of customers not only expect brands to communicate with them, but also expect them to do so in a personalized and direct way. However, the digital ecosystem is also the ideal channel for more invasive methods of communication, which often results in customer engagement campaigns achieving the opposite of what is desired.
The operations and logistics company ParcelLab, has just published a report on online customer behaviour and the customer experience that U.S. brands are offering in 2022.
The results of the study confirm that customers are tired of receiving irrelevant content.
49% of the total number of people surveyed by ParcelLab say that they have received incorrect or inaccurate content from a company in the last six months. Of these, 42% say they have immediately unsubscribed from the company's marketing or information service and 24% have blocked the brand on social media.
This proves that many companies are failing at content personalization and that, while well-thought personalization strategies have good results, poorly focused personalization strategies have really bad results, being one of the main drivers of customer churn.
When asked about the reasons why they found the content received to be irrelevant, 43% of respondents say they have received marketing content about a product they have already purchased. 28% argue that the promoted product is not appropriate for their age and another 28% have received content about an item for a gender they do not identify with.
To know our customers and build an effective marketing strategy, customer segmentation is essential. In the digital ecosystem, the possibilities of obtaining the necessary data to establish a solid customer knowledge base are much greater than in the physical environment. It is highly likely that most companies have enough data about their customers to not send them promotional content about a product that does not match their age or gender, which leaves us wondering what are brands doing wrong.
Collecting customer data is the first step, but after you have collected the data, you need to do something with it. Classifying consumers into customer segments is the only way to avoid suffering the same fate as brands that have sent content to the wrong customer. Without customer segmentation, personalization does not work and, according to the results of the study, customer churn is very likely.
What should brands do?
Very simple. Segment customers and generate a comprehensive communication strategy, as well as an appropriate customer strategy that covers the entire customer journey for each segment.
Learn how to segment customers with our exclusive 'Customer Segmentation Guide'!
Content personalization as a digital marketing strategy strategy generates promising results. Most of the times. However, if it is not based on a solid knowledge foundation, it can lead to adverse results.
Companies must build comprehensive communication strategies based on customer knowledge and customer segmentation. It is the only way to avoid sending inappropriate marketing content that can lead to losing customers and sales opportunities.