Luke Christison of Acxiom examines differences in perception between marketers and consumers over the role and effectiveness of multi-channel
It might seem obvious to people outside the industry that the more channels marketers have at their disposal, the easier it should be to reach consumers with their messages. As more new gadgets hit the High Street, logic dictates that technology should shorten the odds on brands getting in front of their customers.
Of course, the reality is different. And although many marketing professionals are all too aware that there has been a shift from ‘push’ or marketer-controlled messaging to ‘pull’ or consumer-controlled messaging, it seems only a minority realise just how far the pendulum has swung.
Intrigued to understand how consumers are finding their way around the multichannel marketing landscape, Acxiom polled 1,000 UK consumers, and also asked 200 marketers for their views. The responses revealed a chasm in perceptions between the public and the professionals.
Firstly, it appears that great marketing might in some way have created Frankenstein’s monster; by doing such a good job of rolling out technology and digital services, the industry has breathed life into consumers’ ability to control the relationship between brand and individual. The more people enjoy interacting with the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook, and the experiences they provide, the greater their expectation will be of similar relationships with other brands they deal with.
When the consumers were asked if they are ‘in control’ of their relationships with brands (and by that, we meant they feel that the marketing they receive is timely, relevant and arrives through their preferred channels), 82 per cent said yes. In contrast, marketers believed that only 30 per cent of people would feel in control across a range of industry sectors – quite a gap.
For digital marketers, people’s responses to the questions around channel preferences were also intriguing, if not worrying. Traditional channels scored probably better than the most educated guesses might have estimated, while marketing through ‘new’ media such as social and mobile is yet to be taken seriously by large swathes of consumers. Findings included:
• Almost three in four people (71 per cent) are happy to receive mail from organisations they are already customers of. Additionally, some 57 per cent also felt postal contact was appropriate for prospective customers.
• Email is similarly popular among customers, with 78 per cent of people willingly accepting this form of contact; the figure dropped to 52 per cent for prospects, but this was still felt to be the second most appropriate way of targeting people.
• Only 9 per cent of customers felt SMS marketing was appropriate. Marketers were off-beam with their estimate, guessing 25 per cent of customers would welcome text messages. SMS contact provoked more disdain among prospects (4 per cent acceptance), although marketers seemed aware of this sentiment, predicting 5 per cent.
• Just 4 per cent of customers approve of contact through Twitter and the same proportion through other social media. Marketers were cautious about using these channels, estimating 5 per cent of customers would like to be contacted this way. They also believed 5 per cent of prospects would be happy to receive marketing via social media; the actual figure was 6 per cent.
What this means is there is a long road ahead in terms of building respect for all forms of digital marketing; look how long it has taken email to become an established type of business-to-consumer contact. Acceptance of mobile advertising, SMS and social media contact is about building trust, recognising the right time to join the conversation and delivering the messages people want to hear. To do that, you need the right consumer insight and the right data.
The key to campaign success lies in knowing when and where to connect with each consumer, and the foundation for making those decisions is 360-degree, accurate data, collected at all touchpoints and treated with cutting-edge analytics. Then you’ll truly understand which consumers will respond to what types of marketing, through which channels, and when.
Luke Christison, Head of Multichannel Marketing Services UK & France, Acxiom
http://www.acxiom.co.uk/Pages/home.aspx