Kate O'Neill: Marketers must be tactful with technology
If you've heard me speak about marketing, there's a good chance you've heard me say, "Relevance is a form of respect." What I mean by that is that when you tailor what you say so that it reflects what your listeners have already told you they care about, you are in effect acknowledging the importance of their time and priorities. Marketers, particularly digital marketers, have tremendous opportunities to do this with data and technology. When you demonstrate to a customer or prospective customer that you have thought about their likely needs, desires and concerns, you are generally more likely to succeed.
The catch is it can go too far.
I've already written about cases where companies like Facebook and OkCupid have over-reached their customer relationships with the testing they've done and manipulations to user and customer experiences.
But now, more and more ambient technologies like beacons, wearables and other pieces of the Internet of Things are making what once seemed like far-fetched science fiction (think "Minority Report" and the personalized display ads that spoke directly to Tom Cruise's character) possible. Even imminent.
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It's a huge opportunity for hyper-personalized and contextualized content and experiences. It's also potentially a massive trap for marketers because studies have shown that people want to be tailored to, but not so much that it creeps them out.
Don't jump the gun
A 2011 study showed that when personalization such as names appearing in email subject lines happened before the customer and the company had an established relationship, customers were put off. They even unsubscribed at higher rates than when there was no personalization. Later in the relationship, after a customer had purchased from a company, personalization had no effect or positive effect on the customer's likelihood to unsubscribe.
This flies in the face of a lot of supposed marketing "best practices," which tend to suggest more personalization is always better. But customers' concerns over privacy, phishing and identity theft may make them wary of such intrusive gestures of familiarity when they don't already know and trust the company.
Can you imagine how much more often that will be the case when we're talking about location-aware wearables triggering personalized display advertising?
As consumers, we have some choices about the technologies we let into our lives. It helps to remember that "free" just means you're paying with something other than money, and more and more, that payment is your data. That's OK if you're getting some value from the tradeoff, such as relevant interactions and worthwhile conveniences, and an assurance that your data is being safeguarded.
As marketers, too, we have choices to make. The marketing data we have access to in many cases is more than ample to confuse and intimidate customers into a short-term sale. But far more lasting value will come from using that same data to create a framework for interacting with respect and developing stronger, more meaningful connections with customers.
Kate O'Neill, founder and principal of KO Insights, is a speaker, author and consultant focused on meaningfulness in business and in life. Follow her on Twitter @kateo.