Member Article

How marketers can demystify the use of data

The rise in the smartphone society means that brands now know more about their customers than ever before. Today’s customers are constantly connected – and as the line between the “real” world and the digital one continues to blur, the opportunities for data capture will only continue to grow.

But many customers are still left bewildered about how their data is used, and two recent reports from The Chartered Institute of Marketing and The Information Commissioners Office have highlighted the genuine public concerns around what data businesses collect, how they do it, and how it’s used.

Data distrust

Data now drives the way we do business, and the benefits of deep-dive data analysis are many. It provides unprecedented consumer understanding, increases customer engagement, and drives sales.

But the ability to make effective use of data is being threatened by a real lack of consumer trust in how businesses use the insights they have on their customers. This disconnect between consumer sentiment and commercial ambition could prove a major stumbling block to marketing efforts – no matter how well intentioned.

The extent of consumers’ concerns is highlighted in The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s recent report, “Whose Data is it Anyway?”, which shows that 57% of those surveyed do not trust companies to handle their data responsibly.

A second study released this month by The Information Commissioners Office provides more background on what is behind these concerns. Their Annual Track survey is a gauge of consumers’ awareness around data use, and shows that concerns around data stem from it potentially being stolen by criminals (75%), nuisance calls and cold calls (72%) and data being sold to other companies for marketing purposes (60%).

Restoring consumer confidence

It’s clear that recent data breaches, the associated press coverage, and poorly thought-out marketing strategies have left consumers concerned or in the dark about what information brands have about them. Brands now need to restore customers’ trust before it’s too late.

A key part of this will be demystifying the processes behind data use. The CIM report found that only 16% of people read the terms and conditions, a stat hardly surprising when one considers their length and complexity. In many cases, Ts&Cs only fuel confusion.

Making data policies as clear and simple as possible may be easier said than done, but brands will benefit from being transparent and honest from the outset about the way they use their consumers’ data. Providing a crib sheet of the main points of contention in your Ts&Cs, for example, could help give customers a top line understanding of what they are signing up to.

Creating preference centres will also give consumers greater control over what communications they receive. While businesses are legally allowed to send communications in relation to their service, provided customers have opted in, preference centres allow customers to select the specific information they receive and channels that they want to be contacted in, whether SMS or push notifications. For brands, this can prove an invaluable way of learning what type of messages customers tend to engage with, and allows for better and more streamlined communications in the future.

By giving the consumer more control over the types of information they receive, brands will inevitably end up communicating with a smaller but more engaged audience who will have more confidence that these brands are using their data in their best interests.

Practice what you preach

The CIM report shows that 51% of those surveyed complained that they had been contacted by organisations that had misused their data. It’s clear that businesses must pay more than lip service to their guarantees. If brands are to earn their consumers’ trust, they must be transparent in how and to what end they are using data – and most importantly, that it will not be passed over to third parties without prior agreement from the customer.

As with any data collection, it comes back to the value exchange. The challenge for brands now is to highlight how tracking, and subsequent greater understanding of consumer behaviour, will add value and provide a greater customer experience. Centralising your data will be key to using this information effectively, allowing for tailored and targeted messaging that meets a customers’ need to feel recognised. Making sense of such a huge amount of information is often a complex challenge for many businesses, but breaking down data into smaller, more manageable and effective pools can help to unlock the value in your data – and in turn restore consumer confidence.

Using data smartly and sensitively proves to customers that the more they let a brand know about them, the better their experience. Once brands can demonstrate that the benefits outweigh the risks, customers will become more willing to share their data.

Jill is a Senior Director of Strategy and Analytics at Zeta Global. An experienced CRM professional, Jill has extensive knowledge of data driven communications and customer journey planning across direct, digital, social and offline.

Zeta Global is a digital marketing and smart data company helping over 250 brands worldwide to acquire, grow and keep customers. It was recognised as one of the 50 most promising private companies by Forbes in 2014 and has featured three times in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Campaign Management.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jill Brittlebank .