Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

To understand what messages and communications were most valued by today's customer, we partnered with the CMO Council to audit the voice of the average North American consumer. What we discovered is that consumers resoundingly stated that whatever the channel, they wanted relevant communications from marketers in order to maintain a sustainable relationship. Further, consumers stated they will disconnect from a company if they receive communications they perceive to be irrelevant.

When asked if they had ever unsubscribed from an email newsletter, 91 percent of consumers stated that they had. When asked why, the majority said it was because the information was simply not relevant. And this absence of relevancy is systemic, as evidenced by a staggering 73 percent of consumers who said they have received promotional offers on products they have already purchased from companies.

Winning a consumer's opt-in for our messaging is clearly not enough. Consumers are ignoring opt-in communications that fail to contain relevant information. When asked about must-read documents, consumers overwhelmingly pointed to personally relevant communications like monthly billing statements, bank statements, e-newsletters, and news alerts. Only 37 percent of respondents believe that email news alerts to be must-read and only 40 percent always read newsletters. Compare this to what consumers always open -- 92 percent of consumers said they always open a monthly bill, and 72 percent would always open a statement sent via email.

So often we marketers envision engagement as a tug-of-war with our customers as they try to decide between email and traditional mail. How do they want to receive everything we send them? When? How often? Should we engage through social media channels? But what our customers are really struggling with is a lack of relevance and meaning in our messages. This demand for relevancy will only heighten as consumers are increasingly pulled from email and traditional mail and as the impact of social media, user-generated content, and alternate channels continue to grow and proliferate.

Marketers aiming to achieve greater relevance need to take a data-driven approach, which will help to extract strategies for more relevant campaigns using the tools and resources they have currently.

Marketers must begin by deciding what problem they're seeking to address. For example, they should determine the goal, whether it's achieving greater response rates to a particular promotion or reactivating dormant customers. Next, marketers need to evaluate what data they have on their customers and identify the desirable customer segment. Marketers then should identify customers whose prior behaviors and engagement history most closely match this group. This new targeted customer segment can then be divided into a test group and a control group for the campaign.

Hotel chain Best Western International, for example, used its monthly loyalty statement as a targeted, promotional vehicle. The target group produced a 39 percent increase in number of stays and a 30 percent increase in revenue over the control group. Further, the target group showed a 500 percent increase in new credit card applications over the control group.

As with all journeys, there is a single starting point. Marketers must start now - and start where they stand regardless of data integration and level of insight sophistication. There is no time to wait for the ideal level of data insight and tools integration. By introducing greater relevance into the communications we're sending today, we can achieve greater retention, which will open an often unexplored route to revenue and make the whole journey profitable.

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About the Author: Sandra Zoratti is the vice president of global solutions marketing at InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between Ricoh and IBM