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Preference centers can be an effective technique for increasing brand engagement and trust with their customers.
Consumers dislike being reminded to buy something. However, they will tolerate it if they have a voice in how they are notified.
Preference centers are emerging as a way for digital marketers to stay in touch with their clients while not upsetting them. Brands may create a front-end where customers can specify how frequently they want to be notified, through which channel, and what type of information they want to hear about.
The technique generates zero-party data and can be utilized to establish long-term consumer relationships. But trust is essential, therefore do not be wicked. Customers will enter into this agreement as long as you pledge to respect their wishes and keep their information private.
Ready, ask, aim, and shoot.
So, why not ask the client how they want to be informed and allow them to establish the controls? That sounds simple. However, marketers must carefully consider how they will build up a preference center. What information can you obtain without annoying the customer? You don’t have to know their entire life story when you ask them to fill out a form. .
“Think about your onboarding experiences, quizzes and surveys, and areas where preferences can be remembered to make the experience better.” Parsad spoke. “Customers want personalization, so it’s critical to leverage this data to improve the web experience. You’re learning far more about them than simply their name, email, and address.”
Cash positioned the preference center strategically, as part of a data management plan. “Marketers should look for solutions that can integrate with existing customer journeys and UIs like webforms, whilst also providing flexible UIs out of the box for additional data and consent capture.” He went on to say. “A preference center is not an ideal place for data collection for B2B and B2C, as it really should empower the user to manage how they would like to be communicated.” Harrison stated. “In collecting information about [the customer] and their preferences, you are allowing them to control the content.”
During the Stone Age
Marketers attempted to determine the frequency with which they could communicate with clients, typically by email. Even the time of day and the content of the message were considered “judgment factors”. However, that strategy was not infallible.
“Email marketing can cause inbox fatigue,” said Alex Cash, head of strategy at OneTrust PreferenceChoice, which provides a consent and preference management platform. “As people have been frustrated by the stream of marketing emails in recent years, many have begun to disregard their inboxes entirely. Unfortunately for marketers, this translates to fewer opens and more unsubscribes.
“Our pockets have been buzzing and beeping more in the years since the introduction of the iPhone,” said Nirish Parsad, Tinuiti’s practice lead for privacy, identification, and marketing technology. “We have SMS messages, push alerts, and numerous types of in-app notifications all competing for your attention. So, what are the shortcomings? If your communication strategy in 2022 is only email, that’s a lot of work for a 20% open rate, if you’re lucky.”
“Previously, B2B and B2C both had very detailed and granular preference centers in the hopes of limiting the number of unsubscribes, but that overcomplicated the operation,” said Lauren Harrison, senior marketing consultant at CloudKettle, a consulting firm. Firms sometimes requested an excessive amount of information. “Preferences were ignored, and recipients stopped wanting to fill the whole form out.” That’s what she stated.
Build it correctly, and they will come.
Marketers can make smart decisions while creating the preference center. However, those decisions should be supported by data. Here, A/B testing comes into play. “Develop a few different versions of the form, asking different questions and measure which has the most form fill-outs, and which has the most people drop off part way through.” Harrison stated.
“Another method is doing focus groups with customers to obtain feedback directly from them on what works and doesn’t.” Harrison added. “It is a good practice to have someone outside of marketing/sales review the form to ensure it makes sense and is not too complicated.”
“Marketers can gauge success from several metrics: Opt-in and opt-down rates, unsubscribes, or the development of first-party and zero-party data sets.” Cash stated. Analysis will show “which initiatives are most effective, and shine light on how trust and transparency are leading to ROI.”
“Net promoter score (NPS) is a great indicator, and I wish marketers used customer delight metrics to guide various strategies.” Parsad spoke. “Customer loyalty and retention are other great metrics to start looking at.”