Consumers prefer email marketing about sales or promotions above other messaging. But many will drop you over sub-par personalization, judging by Audience of One: Consumer Expectations and the
Power of Personalization, a study by Movable Ink.
Of the consumers polled, 26% will unsubscribe from emails when the personalization is wrong or inaccurate. And 27% will call customer
service and explain the experience.
In addition, 15% will cancel the service or will not buy from the company again. And 9% will tell family and friends.
Another 9% will delete the brand’s app from their phone, while 8% will switch over to a competitor’s brand, 5% will post a bad review and 5% will gripe about it on social media. The
remainder will do nothing.
Gen Z is the most susceptible to personalization — 73% are likely to buy goods or services when a brand has created a personal
experience, vs. 67% of millennials, 67% of Gen Xers, 50% of those in the 55-64 age cohort and 45% of those over 65.
But here’s another grim statistic: 71% will abandon
shopping carts while shopping online, while 47% will do so sometimes, 22% often and 2% always.
What types of information are most useful to consumers mulling possible purchases? They
include:
- Email marketing about sales or promotions — 58%
- Email marketing to tell you of new products or
services — 37%
- Email marketing to remind you of products you previously browsed or carted but never purchased — 26%
- In-app
notifications or reminders to tell you of new products or services — 17%
- Email marketing reminding you to re-purchase products or services that
you’ve purchased in the past that you could be running low on — 16%
- In-app notifications or reminders to highlight products you previously browed
or carted but never purchased — 16%
- Social media posts announcing new releases of products or services on social media — 15%
- In-app notifications or reminders for you to re-purchase products or services that you’ve purchased in the past that you could be running low on — 13%
Here’s what consumers seek in a brand before buying:
- Quality of service — 84%
- Rewards program (benefits to being local
customer) — 67%
- Creates a feeling of trust and security in the product/service you are receiving — 49%
- Brand values — 47%
- Sense of caring/being valued as a customer — 44%
And here are the characteristics that convince shoppers to trust a company:
- Consistency of the customer experience — 78%
- Helpful customer service — 78%
- Strong reputation/positive reviews —
63%
- Personalized customer experience or relevant communication — 54%
- Positive culture (i.e., a company’s values, ethics,
behaviors and work environment, etc. — 42%
- Strong leadership/CEO — 15%
- Strong social media presence — 7%
When
consumers do like a product, 33% are very likely to recommend it, 27% are some so and 25% are extremely likely.
Here are two more stats of
note:
- 68% will remain loyal to a brand if they’re engaging and building personal relationships with them.
- 61% are likely to buy when a firm has created a personalized experience in their branded content.
Movable Ink surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers
from May 17 to June 3, 2021.