It’s that time of year, when Santa pulls out the naughty and nice lists to see who gets the gifts and who gets the coal. Some of the marketing techniques easily make the nice list, while others are clearly misbehaving. Spam mail? Coal, for sure. Quality content in blogs and product descriptions? Santa gives those gifts.
Some of those marketing techniques aren’t quite as easily categorized. Santa knows personalization is important to consumers. Ecommerce site users say they prefer to see relevant ads, content, and offers—information that matches their interests as determined by products they’ve appreciated in the past.
Sounds like Santa’s list is decided if 74% of consumers want this type of experience, right? Why would he consider putting customized marketing on the bad list when so many say they support personalized marketing? Well, because even though 71% of consumers want to see relevant content, 74% of American consumers think targeted ads based on previous online behavior are creepy.
We've talked before about what differentiates marketing that's awesome vs. creepy. But how do you stay away from the naughty side of that line when consumer attitudes contradict themselves?
Now you can see Santa’s conundrum, can’t you?
Contradictory Results
Consumers are a contradictory bunch, aren’t they? Surveys often turn up data that seems to cancel itself out, especially when it comes to the wants and wishes of ecommerce customers. How personalization is accomplished definitely affects the results. Still, even seemingly clear-cut results for one survey will have contradictory results from another.
The data doesn’t lie: Consumers prefer personalized shopping experiences whenever they can get them. When consumers are greeted with relevant marketing materials, whether on your ecommerce site or through your emails, they’re less likely to bounce and more likely to click through. In order to provide that type of experience for your ecommerce customers, you have to collect data from each visit they make to your page.
Is Data Collection Naughty?
These two contrary statistics aren’t the only Santa finds when trying to determine whether targeted ads and content as a result of data collection. Consumers think sites that collect information without letting the user know is an invasive practice—83% of American users, to be exact. However, 31.4% of those consumers say they’d feel much more comfortable with companies collecting data from surfing activity if companies were required to participate in enforcement programs that monitor the amount and type of information gathered.
Santa thinks maybe personalized marketing could be on the nice list for good if companies were willing to disclose when information is being gathered and why. Apparently, consumers agree with him. In fact, 77% of consumers say they’d be happy with sharing their information if companies made clear how that information would be used to give a fuller, more customized shopping experience.
Because 86% of American consumers feel they’ve already lost control of their privacy, ecommerce companies might have to leave some extra cookies out for Santa to make up for their transgressions.
How to Make the Nice List
What could these companies do to make sure their personalized marketing ends up on the nice list every year? Santa suggests a few things to help avoid getting lumps of coal.
First, make sure any visitors understand you’ll use information from their visit to help shape future shopping experiences. Whether this is a request for information or a notice that cookies are used on your site, the important thing is simply that you make users aware.
Next, consider generic instead of targeted when ads appear to visitors on third-party sites. As you can see from the chart below, 65% of consumers think it’s a little creepy when the last item they looked at on your site shows up in an ad on an unrelated site.
Finally, tell users how you plan to use the information you collect. When you do, 77% say they trust you to improve their online experiences with personalized greetings and recommendations.
If you can follow these rules, we’re sure Santa will put your ecommerce site on the nice list, and you’ll get all kinds of gifts this holiday season.
Originally published Dec 17, 2013 2:00:00 PM, updated January 18 2023