Studies have shown that personalization is key to increasing customer frequency, spend, and engagement.
Today’s digital marketers have many available channels for personalized marketing, but not all are equally effective. At Mobivity, we’ve created a better solution to combine personal data with engagement, redemption, and POS basket-level data, and can also use machine learning to predict, analyze, and accelerate business growth.
But what about the digital channels thought most popular to deliver personalization and the expectations of those users?
Email – The Big Miss
VentureBeat reports that while email is by far the most commonly used channel for personalized messages at 80%, the volume of competing messages and multiple offers results in a dismally low open rate of around 8%.
Ultimately, other channels are able to provide a more personalized experience using engagement and redemption information, transaction history, and rich demographic data. A great example of this is mobile messaging, including social media and SMS messaging, which equates to 64% of personalized experiences. Mobile is a highly personal channel, and we know a lot about the mobile user. We know that the average American reaches for their phone 46 times per day. They use their phone to communicate with friends and family, share details in social profiles, and are conscious of what they opt-in to.
“Digital business professionals have not yet unlocked the potential of this channel.”
Access to this level of mindshare gives smart businesses an opportunity to create targeted, timely, and highly personalized engagement with their customers. What’s more, the rate of mobile usage isn’t showing any sign of slowing down. Forrester recently stated that “Messaging volume in the US is growing. . . and soon messaging will surpass apps in importance, but digital business professionals have not yet unlocked the potential of this channel.”
Helping Apps Deliver
Apps are the latest digital promise to capture the attention (and dollars) of consumers, but in many cases, they tend to overpromise and under deliver. Digital Trends reports that “80 to 90 percent of all downloaded apps are used once and then eventually deleted by users.” Even many branded apps that don’t remind or give customers or give them a reason to use end up failing to engage.
We’ve found that brands have the most success using a multi-channel approach which combines social media and SMS messaging to promote their app. Of course it won’t guarantee success, but it will improve the odds of being in the elite 10-20% that make it to second or third important impressions.
Make it Personal
Digital channels become personal when they use consumers’ data, but become successful when they leverage that information to become highly relevant. In fact, “77% of millennials fully expect a personalized experience.” VentureBeat found that while an overwhelming 96% of consumers are concerned about their data privacy, they are willing to provide some personal information in exchange for a perceived reward.
VentureBeat believes that “personalization is the single most important capability for future marketing efforts.” We agree. The good news for marketers is that technology is making it easier to add personalization through many channels. It’s now possible to combine personal data from multiple sources and use machine learning to create more timely, targeted, and relevant messaging. In an increasing competition for consumer mindshare, smart marketers will continue to get personal with consumers.