"Trust" is the new buzzword in the digital industry
At DMEXCO, everything will revolve around the question of which digitalization trends will determine the success of organizations in the future. Consumer intelligence and the associated opportunities to address individual customers are definitely at the forefront. The more powerful AI-based technologies become, the more the customer comes to the fore as an individual and not just as part of an anonymous target group.
In order for companies to master the associated challenges, they need data. However, in times of GDPR and increasing awareness of the topic of data protection, this is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. Consumers now know that their personal data is extremely valuable to brands. And if you want this data from them, you have to provide good arguments.
Digital marketing today
Consumers today are confronted with digital marketing around the clock, and brands that fail to deliver relevant, personalized content at just the right time will quickly fall by the wayside. Although traditional channels are still important, mobile customer engagement in particular is one of the most important tasks for marketers today. Consumers spend an average of three and a half hours a day on their smartphones and tablets. Email notifications or follow-up emails after a purchase still play an important role alongside social media and the web.
In order to deliver the personalized customer experience that is the be-all and end-all of customer engagement today, data-based customer profiles are required. Marketers are facing a challenge here, because while on the one hand consumers are demanding that advertising messages are tailored precisely to their individual needs, on the other hand they are becoming increasingly skeptical when it comes to providing brands with their data.
Build trust
Since the GDPR came into force in May 2018, brands have had to earn a consumer's opt-in before they can provide them with personalized content in the digital space. However, numerous media reports about devastating data breaches have made consumers increasingly cautious when it comes to providing their data. It is therefore important to ensure a high level of transparency regarding the use of data and the issue of security. But even if you already have access to a customer's data, you need to continually earn the necessary trust to use the data - if customers feel that their data is not secure or that sharing it will not give them the personalized content they expect, they will quickly withdraw their consent to use the data.
For example, in order to gain long-term access to a customer's location data, which offers many opportunities for personalized marketing, brands need to secure the customer's trust. If customers receive too many location-based messages, they quickly feel harassed or, in the worst case, even stalked. It is therefore important to find a reasonable level for the number of contacts with the customer.
Although AI-based marketing solutions are now very powerful, they are not yet able to calibrate the type and number of automated advertising messages in such a way that they always offer the customer added value. Marketers are responsible for defining rules and limits based on a customer's engagement history, for example.
Technology and empathy
New developments in digital marketing are currently happening so quickly that it is difficult to keep track of them all. AI, voice control, chatbots - all of these will be indispensable in the digital customer approach in the near future. The first step in making sensible use of the new technologies is a powerful tool for collecting, analyzing and processing customer data for an optimal customer experience. Every marketing expert should always be aware that consumer trust is always the top priority - without trust there is no data, without data there is no trust.
