You may know how important personalization is in your marketing strategy. But modern consumers also care a great deal about brands being open. Balance obtaining personal data with the transparency you offer in return
Gathering customer data may just be the most important part of your marketing strategy. You need to understand your audience, their behaviors, and how to get them to stick around. Analyzing data can provide you all that information and more.
But today’s consumers aren’t always willing to provide their information. Only one in three consumers trust most of the brands they support with their business, according to a trust survey from Edelman. It’s more challenging than ever for you to convince consumers that you’re trustworthy.
One big way to foster trust is to be transparent. In fact, transparency will help you gather more of the information you need from your customers.
Customers are paying attention
Because everything has moved to digital channels, customers are more skeptical about providing their personal details to brands online. It’s becoming more important to them to know exactly what will be done with that information before they’re willing to hand it over.
A 2019 Accenture report showed that 71% of consumers who reported having an invasive interaction with a brand said it was because they didn’t provide information the brand somehow obtained. Customers don’t appreciate it when a brand is not honest and indirectly gets data without their consent or knowledge.
Virtual assistants have also created more of a gap between consumer trust and marketers. Over 75% of consumers reported being uncomfortable with a microphone or voice assistant collecting their data.
As more digital channels arise for advertisers and customers to interact, customers are becoming wary of sketchy practices and demand honesty from the companies they support.
Put people before their data
Companies need to prioritize people before collecting their data. They need to show customers that they’re not just using them for their information. This is where personalization comes into play. Customers want to be recognized and understood. They want real connections with brands. They don’t just want to be a sales number.
According to the same report from Accenture, 87% of consumers want brands to understand them ”the real me” before they buy from them. And one way to try to understand what these customers want is to focus on the customer experience.
The customer’s unique journey from research to purchase should be factored into any decisions you make about which channels to use and what kinds of content you’re sending out.
Consumers will respond to transparency
The Accenture report shows that 73% of consumers would be willing to share more information if brands were transparent. That number is up 7% from 2018, so this issue is clearly growing in significance to consumers.
How can you start being more transparent? It’s not enough to simply state that you are honest and open and care about the needs of your customers. You need to tell consumers exactly how they’re information will be used. Why do you need certain data? What do they get out of it?
Make it clear on your website and other outlets that transparency is a top priority for your brand. If you need their name and email address before they can access a white paper or e-book, tell them why before you collect that information.
Another way to practice transparency and honesty is to allow your followers to opt-out at any time. Make the unsubscribe button easy to find in emails and make sure the process only takes a second.
When you send out surveys, make sure your audience knows they’re optional. When consumers don’t feel pressured to do something for a brand, they’re more likely to do it. And always make your privacy and data policies available for customers to access online.
Customers will be more willing to provide their information if you are more transparent about what you do with it and what they get in return. Simply practicing openness and honesty and avoiding unwanted pressure will help your brand earn trust and credibility overall.
BDEX gives you the data you need to make real connections
Instead of only focusing on data signals, you need to make real human connections with your customers and followers. Data solutions from BDEX help you do just that by allowing you to understand behaviors and track important data without being invasive.
Connect with your customers across channels with our Data as a Service (DaaS) platform and our comprehensive Identity Graph, and get access to over a trillion data signals and six billion unique IDs with our data marketplace.
Ready to get the data you need to make human connections? Get in touch with BDEX to learn more.
