Australian consumers demand hyper-personalisation – new report reveals
The way to engage with Australian consumers is through real-time, hyper-personalised experiences, a new eConsultancy report, in partnership with Cheetah Digital reveals.
The report 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index: Consumer Attitudes and Trends in Personalisation, Privacy, Messaging, Advertising and Brand Loyalty shows consumers across Australia interact with a brand on multiple channels, oftentimes unpredictably.
Email marketing reigns supreme
Email continues to sit comfortably as Australian consumers’ preferred channel for receiving offers, content, incentives, and rewards from brands, the report shows. In fact, when it comes to driving sales, email beats paid social and display advertising by up to 228% in Australia. This is 120% higher than consumers globally.
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 emotive bonds by fostering community, recognising their customers as individuals, and delivering bespoke offers and product recommendations that reflect this. Even more, 63% of Australian 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 make personalisation a priority 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 to first create a strategy that involves getting closer to their customer. 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 on the decline
As Google and other browsers cement their plans to comprehensively curtail third-party cookie tracking and consumers get even more proactive about protecting their online privacy, 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, I think a lot of people started losing trust in social platforms, so consumers are starting to want more control over their data and knowing how their data is being used.”
