Today’s consumers walk a fine line between wanting both personalization and privacy. They expect true personalization, bespoke content, tailor-made product recommendations, and control over their data.
Seeking greater convenience and a constant connection with the brands they love, they’re open to sharing personal data with businesses in exchange for individualized experiences.
As awareness grows around the misuse of data, along with stricter data control policies like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), consumers are demanding both personalization and privacy, as they seek to regain their voice and control their personal data.
The business case for tailored experiences
In the age of CX, it’s becoming paramount for marketers to deliver a personalized experience as a key part of their marketing strategy in order to compete and drive current and future growth. A study in 2019 showed that companies that focus on delivering personalized messages in a meaningful, trusted way can deliver up to a 20 percent improvement in commercial benefits.
However, building and executing a tailored experience can be challenging. Many marketers feel there’s more opportunity in terms of ROI than what they’re achieving. Furthermore, the price of getting personalization wrong can have a dramatic impact.
Marketers are walking a fine line between maximizing the impact of personalization and safeguarding customer trust. When marketers don’t use personal data accurately — using too many data dimensions or using the data in a way that seems too personal – the messaging can be seen as creepy.
As consumer expectations continue to outpace brands’ efforts to be personal, marketers face ever-changing thresholds for what people think is an acceptable use of personal information. Each looks at it in different way, however.
Personalization and privacy: The consumer perspective
Consumers crave individualized experiences. Expectations are higher than ever, particularly when it comes to the value they expect brands to deliver to them. Research found that despite expectations outpacing efforts to create personal experiences, nearly all consumers (91 percent) are still more likely to shop with brands who recognize, remember, and provide them with relevant offers and recommendations.
On the other hand, the same research revealed that 83 percent of consumers are willing to share personal data to enable a high level of personalization only if the brand is transparent in how it is used and the consumer has control over the usage.
As consumers become increasingly aware of the misuse of personal information after they are drawing a clear line in the sand as it relates to the use of their data for personalization tactics. In the same poll, consumers found the following personalization tactics the “creepiest:”
- Texts from a brand or retailer when walking by a store (41 percent)
- Mobile notifications after walking by a store (40 percent)
- Ads on social sites for items browsed on a brand websites (35%)
How to balance the personalization privacy paradox
As consumers become increasingly sensitive to their privacy preferences, marketers seeking to drive personalization need to find new ways to navigate the complexity and deliver upon consumer expectations, all while earning their trust.
Moving forward, consumers expect relationships with brands to be similar to their real-life counterparts. When one party goes outside of the relationship for information, the level of trust is broken. The call to balance the competing demands will require marketers to re-evaluate their data strategies and work to build trusting relationships with consumers.
- Build a dynamic profile of each customer’s unique preferences, motivations and needs by connecting directly with them across online and offline sources. By collecting and using data that individuals intentionally and proactively share with a brand in a meaningful way, it reinforces transparency, control and most importantly, trust.
- Leverage the right data for personalization, while also communicating to consumers how the data is used. The right balance of reach, relevance and costs when collecting data to personalize content reduces risk of data breaches, streamlines marketing efforts and improves personalization tactics.
Target and individualize based on actual consumer needs and intentions to improve the value marketers provide to consumers.
In contrast, using inferred data or information about the consumer that they did not share knowingly or directly can be seen as invasive. Consumers favor a superior experience designed to help them over irrelevant and meaningless tactics that far too many brands still use today. Simply including a customers first name in an email subject line shows that brands still know nothing about their needs or expectations.
