79% of Americans are concerned about how businesses use their personal data. In fact, 62% of Americans believe that it is difficult to live a normal life without having your data gathered and utilized. They are so pessimistic about the condition of data privacy in our nation.
Their concern is valid, to be sure. More than 22 billion records were stolen by 4,145 publicly reported privacy breaches in only one year.
Additionally, business executives are increasingly being held accountable for violations: The GDPR, the EU's data privacy policy, allows authorities to fine violators up to €20 million, or 4% of their global sales for the prior fiscal year, whichever is larger.
Following a 2020 phishing attempt that exposed the personal information of as many as 113,000 people, a UK construction company was fined €4.4 million in October.
People might believe that hearing such tales would make them less likely to provide brands with their personal information. Consumers also desire highly individualized marketing messages, which is a contradictory turn of events, and personalization, above all, demands data.
Consider email marketing as an example.
There will be 4 billion email users worldwide in 2020, and 59% of consumers claim that marketing emails have an impact on their purchasing behavior. Email marketing needs to be personalized nevertheless in order to be successful. Customers are adamant about this, and 72% of them only interact with brand messaging that is relevant to them.
So how may tailored advertising be created without frightening audiences or jeopardizing brand-consumer trust? Here are three suggestions.
Make your opt-in and privacy rules explicit.
Although 59% of Americans claim to be unaware of the purposes for which businesses utilize their personal information, they are nonetheless worried enough to regularly erase their cookies (41%), as well as to install ad blockers on their devices (33%).
By clearly explaining what customers agree to when they opt into your email list and how their personal information will (and won't) be used, you can fill in those comprehension gaps.
A privacy statement on your opt-in form can significantly increase sign-up rates, but make sure it contains specific details.
One marketer discovered that when her privacy policy was ambiguous, she received 19% fewer sign-ups. On the other hand, when she added more precise language to the policy, her sign-up rate shot through the roof. The phrase "100% privacy – we will never spam you!" may be changed to "We guarantee 100% privacy." Performance improved by 19.4% as a result of "Your information will not be shared."
Consider adding double opt-in to your email list as well.
Customers must confirm their email address after submitting their on-site opt-in form using double opt-in before they can complete the registration process. By taking this extra step, you may segment your audience based on their level of interest and lower the number of spam accounts on your email list.
How many users, for instance, gave up after the first stage of the registration process? Send a series of emails to that group to encourage them to move along in the registration process. Those who successfully registered can start receiving targeted, customized emails.
Improve for people.
I have discovered that optimizing emails for people first—not robots—instead of robots—is the best method to build trust in your email marketing. Start with language since you need to concentrate on the person reading it rather than the machines scanning it. To ensure that the emails sound conversational, it is crucial to read them aloud.
In the end, email is a private platform, so you can typically use more intimate language than on social media. Your personalization efforts, though, could come out as forced or even scary if the tone sounds "wrong." Personalized subject lines, which have better open rates, are the first step in using language to elicit an emotional reaction. First names are typically a nice place to begin. Additionally, you can use recent purchases or birthdays if you have access to the data.
Then experiment with the design. The psychology of color has been well studied, and the results have a lot to do with email marketing. According to Kissmetrics, 85% of buyers cite color as their main consideration when making a purchase, and various colors might have various outcomes. Red frequently denotes danger or security, but blue is typically seen as dependable and professional.
Finally, make sure your emails are accessible to people with a variety of preferences and abilities by designing them in accordance with universal design principles. Images that are pertinent and visually appealing help persuade recipients to read your email's content in its entirety, but you must always include alt text. In this approach, people who are blind can nevertheless understand any crucial context that the image offers.
Inclusion is also one of the best ways to establish trust with young customers, not to mention that it's the ethical thing to do.
Create, test, discover, then repeat.
To assist your team in developing personalized campaigns at scale, automate email workflows. Start with the welcome email since it has one of the highest open rates (almost 50%). The following phase is simple: birthday emails, then cart abandonment, website bounces, and so on. By focusing on these categories initially, you may develop the knowledge and reporting needed to comprehend and interact with your target audience.
The best email campaigns, like any marketing effort, are not the result of intuition.
Instead, systematic testing, measuring, learning, and changing are required to create effective email marketing. A/B testing your subject lines ought to be the standard procedure by this time, but why stop there? Start comparing two versions of everything in your emails, including the pre-header content, calls to action, graphics, and layouts, to evaluate what works and what doesn't.
Finally, don't be scared to ask your target audience directly for feedback. Create preference centers and encourage subscribers to use them to gather opinions. Do they have a preferred time of day to receive and read emails? Do they find your emails to be overly long? or even too short? How frequently per week? When utilized properly, this strategy can even increase open rates while preventing users from unsubscribing.
Utilize the feedback you receive to expand those centers and give subscribers more control over how their emails are received.
Marketers' preference for tailored email marketing is understandable: Consumers favor email as their primary method of brand communication, and it helps that email has a remarkable $42 to $1 return on investment. You must persuade customers that they can trust you with their credentials in light of the privacy worries that are currently brewing. Include these three tactics in your email marketing campaigns, and you'll see even the most skeptical customers start to interact with your brand messaging.