By Dave O’Flanagan, CEO and co-founder, Boxever

Personalization is a popular buzzword in marketing today, with many marketers embarking on projects to enable personalized communications between their brand and their customers. To be effective, the brand must have a deep understanding of the recipient and the ability to deliver the right message or offer, via the right channel, at right time.

However, one of the key barriers to marketers truly knowing their customers is the actual customer – and their willingness (or lack thereof) to share the personal information that would make deep personalization possible. New research from Boxever recently found that, despite wanting the brands they trust and follow to personalize marketing communications and offers, consumers are reticent to share the necessary information to make deep personalization possible. The study found that:

Furthermore, only 2% of consumers believe that the brands they frequent and patronize know them extremely well, which means brands & marketers still have a ways to go to demonstrate deep customer knowledge.

What’s the impact?

When brands’ communications don’t match the preferences, interests, location, or context of the recipient, at least half (50%) are less likely to open the next offer that comes from that company. After receiving numerous irrelevant offers:

• 59% of respondents said they would unsubscribe from that company’s content
• 31% indicated they would delete that company’s mobile app
• 28% are less likely to visit that company’s website

The impact extends beyond just opting out of a brands’ marketing channels: 40% of the survey respondents said that after receiving irrelevant offers from a brand, they are less likely to buy from that company moving forward.

So, what can brands do?

To overcome the data disconnect and move closer to 1-to-1 marketing, it’s important for marketers to earn consumers’ trust and focus on value.

To earn trust, be as transparent as possible about the data you are collecting, and set expectations with your customers around how that information will be used. Don’t abuse trust – keep your end of the bargain, and use the data only as you’ve outlined.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, explain the value that customers will receive by sharing their information. Customers want brands to know them well, and crave value-orientated offers and opportunities. Provide example scenarios about how you’ll apply the information – for example, if asking customers for permission to track their locations, tell them it may result in receiving a coupon whenever they are within a 5-mile radius of a store location. And then deliver on that trust by actually delivering that coupon when they walk by.

Brands that choose to respect customer data, use it wisely, and invite the customer to be part of the sharing process will be rewarded with more data and loyalty.

Interested in the full report? Download it now. Don’t have much time? View the infographic!

 Boxever is a customer intelligence and predictive marketing platform designed specifically for travel retailers. Companies like Air New Zealand, Ryanair, eDreams ODIGEO, and more increase conversion, drive revenue, and improve loyalty using Boxever’s cloud-based solution. Learn more at www.boxever.com or follow us on Twitter @Boxever.