The way to engage with Australian consumers is through real-time, hyper-personalised experiences; a new eConsultancy report, in partnership with Cheetah Digital, reveals.
Entitled 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index: Consumer Attitudes and Trends in Personalisation, Privacy, Messaging, Advertising and Brand Loyalty. The global report looks at consumer attitudes and year over year trends in personalisation, privacy, messaging, advertising and brand loyalty based on survey insights collected from more than 5,400 consumers across six countries.
The report details consumer preferences and what they expect from the brands they buy from, the channels, and formats they prefer to communicate, the type of data they’re willing to share, and the terms under which they’re eager to share it.
The pandemic continues to reverberate throughout the marketing landscape.
The publishing of this data comes at a critical time, as the effects of the pandemic continue to reverberate throughout the marketing landscape.
While some consumer behaviours and attitudes remained the same, many others quickly changed. Shifts that once took years to emerge are taking place in weeks, pushing brands to arm themselves with the latest data to keep up and respond appropriately.
“The path to customer acquisition has evolved from a relatively straightforward train track to a bowl of spaghetti, with multiple channels and formats to navigate,” said Tim Glomb, VP of content at Cheetah Digital. “Brands can no longer get away with lumping customers into segments but instead must treat them as individuals.
As a result, this requires developing authentic relationships, offering actual value exchange, and interpreting the right customer signals at the right time in the right channel.
This report offers brands an extraordinary opportunity to assess their ability to create and execute campaigns that meet and exceed consumers’ growing demand for more personalisation, more privacy, and a deeper relationship with the brands they know and trust. From an Australian perspective, these include
Email marketing reigns supreme.
The report shows that email continues to sit comfortably as the Australian consumers’ preferred channel for receiving offers, content, incentives, and rewards from brands.
When it comes to driving sales, email remains one of the most effective channels, beating banner ads, social media ads, organic posts, and SMS by up to 228% in Australia, which is 120% higher than consumers globally. Half of the consumers report purchasing a product directly due to an email they received in the last 12 months.
Price isn’t the only loyalty driver.
The cheapest price point is only one factor of loyalty. Today, Australian consumers are loyal to brands that create emotional bonds by fostering community, recognising their customers as individuals, and delivering bespoke offers and product recommendations. Globally 57% of consumers say they are prepared to pay more to buy from a preferred brand, whereas in Australia, 63% of consumers are willing to pay more to purchase from a favoured brand.
“When done correctly, loyalty programs govern the value exchange between brands and consumers, and not just for a single interaction but for direct engagement over the customer lifetime. With contextually differentiated, personalised experiences, they can be the conduit for the one-to-one relationships that build customer lifetime value,” says Cheetah Digital’s VP for APAC, Billy Loizou.
Greater personalisation yields ROI and long-term consumer excitement
In the value exchange economy, Australian consumers are rewarding brands that prioritise personalisation, with more than half saying they will trade personal and preference data to feel part of a brand’s community.
At the same time, there’s been nearly a 50% increase in Australian consumers who feel frustrated with a brand whose personalisation initiatives don’t recognise their unique desires and needs.
“Marketers need first to create a strategy that involves getting closer to their customers. Customers are saying, ‘We’re happy to provide our data and sign up to your marketing program in exchange for offers sent directly to me that are relevant,” says Loizou.
Trust in advertising is on the decline.
As Google and other browsers cement their plans to curtail third-party cookie tracking comprehensively, consumers get even more proactive about protecting their online privacy. As a result, marketers must shift to a first- and zero-party data strategy to power their advertising and marketing initiatives.
More than half of Australian consumers (63%) don’t trust social media platforms with their data. And 69% share they believe cookie tracking is “creepy”.
“People just don’t know what these social media platforms are doing with their data,” Loizou points out. “When Cambridge Analytica happened, many people started losing trust in social platforms, so consumers want more control over their data and know-how their data is being used.”
The complete 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index is free to download and can be accessed here https://www.cheetahdigital.com/report/digital-consumer-trends-index-2022?utm_source=azk-media&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=content-hub&sf_campaign_id=7016M000001416eQAA&utm_campaign=en-consumer-index-2022
