Consumers Don’t Just Ignore Irrelevant Marketing Messages…

January 17, 2014

This article is included in these additional categories:

Data-driven | Digital | Email | Personalization | Privacy & Security | Social Media

Janrain-Consumer-Response-Mis-Targeted-Marketing-Efforts-Jan2014Almost all consumers claim to have received information or promotions not relevant to them, including offers that show the company doesn’t know who they are (71%), contain mixed information across different methods of communication (51%), or include basic errors about the consumers’ identities (41%), detail Janrain and Blue Research in newly-released survey results touting the benefits of social login. In response, more than 9 in 10 respondents have developed an unfavorable attitude to the company or taken some kind of action to limit the messaging.

Specifically, 94% of respondents reported taking at least one of these actions in response to a company that consistently mis-targeted them in their marketing efforts:

  • Automatically deleted the emails (68%);
  • Unsubscribed from emails (54%);
  • Categorized emails as “junk” or “spam” (45%);
  • Became less likely to buy products (29%);
  • Visited the website less frequently (13%); and
  • Never visited the website again (10%).

Apparently, it only takes a couple of missteps to turn off a sizable proportion of consumers: almost half said they automatically delete emails or categorize them as “junk” after being mis-targeted twice; 38% unsubscribe after receiving two mis-targeted emails.

By delivering data that can be used by marketers to personalize their communications, social login can avoid these pitfalls, per the researchers, who indicate that 9 in 10 respondents have encountered social login at some point and half use it.

Among social login users, 9 in 10 are satisfied with the experience, with the primary reasons for use being faster registration (65%) and one less password to remember (50%). That brings to mind a survey released early last year by Janrain and Harris Interactive, which found that 88% of online adults don’t like being asked to register on a website, with 51% of those turned off by the idea of having to remember another user name or password.

Interestingly, though, social login use is currently not driven by a desire for more personalization; only 12% said they chose social login to “ensure websites are more personalized.” That either implies a lack of awareness of the benefit among consumers, or that they simply are not as enamored by website personalization as they say they are.

Privacy concerns obviously play a role. Among those not using social login, half say a primary reason is a lack of trust in the company to use their data appropriately, with one-third concerned that the company will post to their feed, and 1 in 6 concerned that the company will spam them or their contacts.

Consumers may not also be convinced of the value exchange. In a study released late last year by Forbes Insights and Turn, only 2% of B2C customers said they believe they benefit more than companies when sharing their data, and a majority indicated that their privacy concerns outweigh benefits from sharing information.

Some reassurance would no doubt help: according to the Janrain study, respondents would be most likely to respond to reassurances that the company will not contact others in their social network and that their information would only be used to personalize their experience. Sending free trials, gift cards or promotions won’t do the trick for many.

The survey finds that in general, “consumers see value in personalization enabled by social login.” However, the results require a slightly closer look. For example, the study indicates that “60% find suggested products/promotions based on profile info useful.” However, respondents were deemed to find this “useful” if they rated its utility anywhere from a 5 to a 10 on a 10-point scale. (One would imagine that those rating it a 5 would be quite neutral on the topic.)

Even with this rather broad view of “usefulness,” only a minority of respondents would allow mobile phone apps to offer special “in-store offers” (49%) or would like suggestions based on profile info (44%), among others.

About the Data: The data is based on a national survey of 594 adults, most of whom (55%) fell into the 35-64 age range.

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