Marketers are sold on the benefits of personalization: 88% say they have seen an increase in business from using personalization tactics. The catch, however, is that consumers are quick to compare different brands’ personalization prowess, and to take action when a brand comes up short: 44% of shoppers are willing to switch to brands that do a better job personalizing the experience, according to Infogroup.
Poor product recommendations are one of the biggest problem areas., according to the Infogroup survey, titled: The Power of Personalization: 53% of consumers say advertising for an irrelevant product is the most annoying thing a brand can get wrong.
Providing relevant messaging also is a major component to personalization, especially for Millennials. As many as 40% of Millennials say that the most important thing a brand can do is ensure that its messages are personalized to their interest, whether through targeted Google ads in their email or personalized via Instagram feeds.
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The survey revealed that 93% of consumers report receiving marketing communications or advertising that are not relevant to them, showing that today’s retailers often still miss the mark on how to communicate effectively. As many as 90% of shoppers are at least slightly annoyed by irrelevant messaging.
The five biggest mistakes retailers and brands make when personalizing the shopper experience, according to the 1,500 U.S. shoppers surveyed, are:
- Sharing/talking about topics that the shopper has no interest in;
- Attempting to sell products the shopper already owns;
- Misspelling the shopper’s name in a message;
- Misidentifying the shopper’s gender; and
- Misidentifying the shopper’s location.
