The Cost of Not Versioning, Personalizing Your Marketing Comms?
Let’s start with looking at marketing, the purpose, the goal… what is it a marketer does? Marketeers sole goal is to deliver engaging communication strategies to win the hearts and minds of consumers or indeed, the target audience for B2B. Marketing/Advertising isn’t the same as it was, technology, environment and the way we consume content has changed, morphed and is just entirely different.
The Ads of the 80’s and 90’s
I clearly remember memorable ads like the Cadbury’s Milk Tray Man, arguably not the best chocolates in the world, but I always bought them for my Mum “and all because the lady loves Milk Tray”! The Cadburys flake ad, the Cadburys Gorilla ad with the soundtrack from Phil Collins and let’s not forget Maureen Lipman “he got an ology” – “it’s good to talk” from BT, the iconic series of adverts in the ’80s and ’90s.
Ads that pulled on the heartstrings of consumers; everything about these ads was communication, talking, use case scenarios or infer. James Bond for Milk Tray, Singing Happy Birthday for BT … Believe it or not, this was a new experience for the consumer then, talking on the phone.
Actually, this era of marketing comms was fantastic, brand, positioning, captivation, captive audience, what changed? I am trying to recall an ad that engaged with me as much as some of these classic ads?
Marketing mediums changed, did the concept change?
The ability to fast forward through ads as TV content is now pre-recorded on set-top boxes, disengaged audiences that are tired of generic advertising, short attention span to consuming a vast range of content, faster and on mass.
What does this mean, what challenges does the marketer face today? New mediums, new channels, new technologies – a different consumer mindset.
Social Media, Web Activity, Connected TV, Content Streaming … these are now the channels where the consumer spends their time. Does this mean we can’t engage in the same way, employ the same smarts as the advertising legends of the ’80s and ’90s did?
Actually, research suggests that it isn’t that, it is that we have become complacent with a drive towards direct response, short quick wins, instant “call to action” style campaigns, forgetting that the top of the funnel of winning hearts and minds is so important to drive those CTA campaigns.
“Buy Now” | “Enquire Now” | “Find out More Now” | “Click Here”
The ability to mass target on the premise of data, platforms and increased scale has created an ecosystem that lost touch with the core objective of understanding what drives a consumer journey and why they buy a product or service.
Data shows the opportunity is personalisation
However, I think we are turning a corner, and this is because the spotlight on data, consumer awareness and technology is catching up with marketing is creating an alignment of goals. Recent reports from Accenture, McKinsey Marketing’s Holy Grail: Digital personalization at scale, Monetate 2019 Personalization Development Study, Forbes 50 Stats Showing The Power Of Personalization.
These reports have a common theme: they all point towards the need and desire from consumers to have a genuinely personal, tailored, more relevant experience “stop wasting my time” comes to mind.
–50% Reduced Acquisition Cost, 15% Increase in revenue
71% of consumers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal ~ Segment
36% of consumers say retailers need to do more to offer personalized experiences ~ Retail TouchPoints
91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them ~ Accenture
63% of consumers will stop buying from brands that use poor personalization tactics ~ Smart Insights
66% of consumers say encountering content that isn’t personalized would stop them from making a purchase ~ CMO by Adobe
83% of consumers are willing to share their data to create a more a personalized experience ~ Accenture
90% of consumers are willing to share personal behavioural data with companies for a cheaper and easier experience ~ SmarterHQ
An integrated approach and versioning
In summary, in today’s marketing strategy, a combination of data, consumer understanding, insights, creativity and personalization and versioning for your audience will undoubtedly deliver better results.
Personalizing content now involves actual versioning of multiple content scenarios, language, product – numerous platforms, Social, Display, Organic Content, Search and more. Data, consumer privacy-centric data. Multi-platform use to increase reach.
By Oliver Klander, VP Sales at ReMake.
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