• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 11, 2025

Consumers demand relevance in email and other communications, and will turn off when they don’t get it, judging by a new global study from Attentive, titled The State of Global Marketing in 2025.

Of the consumers polled, 81% ignore irrelevant messages and 71% are frustrated by them, while 25% will ignore generic messages.  

But what is relevance? You might define it as pertinence — or utility. A company does not have to be selling with every word. 

These types of messages impact the likelihood to purchase:

• Back-in-stock notifications — 75% 
• Loyalty point reminders — 68% 
• Sales alerts — 67% 
• Product recommendations — 53% 
• Restock reminders — 48%
• Browse abandonment — 48% 
• Cart abandonment — 44%
• Generic messages — 24% 

This is the most helpful non-sales content in text or email: 

• Product recommendations — 53% 
• Product launches — 43% 
• Care and styling tips — 41% 
• Customer reviews — 40% 
• Opportunities to share feedback — 33% 
• Event invitations — 32% 
• Brand initiative updates — 30% 
• Brand culture and values — 24%
• Behind-the-scenes — 23%

All that said, consumers are influenced by these factors when deciding to continue shopping with a brand. They want the company to: 

• Remember my preferences — 66%
• Make relevant product suggestions — 55% 
• They remember my past interactions — 47% 

And consumers most want to receive these types of communications:

• Sales/price drops — 52% 
• Order updates — 47%
• Product recommendations (based on previous purchases) — 32% 
• Product recommendations (based on information I shared with the brand) — 30% 
• Product tips — 29% 
• Browse/cart abandonment — 28%

Two things to keep in mind: AI can now help brands scale personalization.And Rich Communication Services (RCS) will transform mobile shopping by providing more interactive brand experiences in text messages, the study says. 

Attentive partnered with CITE Research to survey 3,300 consumers (2,000 in the U.S., 1,000 in the U.K., and 300 in Australia) in January 2025.