Summary of the findings

30 seconds or less

A consumer survey, conducted by YouGov and commissioned by Responsys, discovered that UK consumers are on average spending 30 seconds or less reading or listening to online marketing communications, leaving brands with a very limited amount of time to capture their attention.

The online survey polled over 2,000 UK adults about their perceptions of marketing today and how they engage with content from brands across a variety of online channels, including email, mobile and social media platforms. The survey found that, as a result of the proliferation of tablet devices, smartphones and new media platforms, the practice of ‘dual screening’ is becoming an increasingly prevalent habit for today’s modern consumer.

In fact, 44 per cent of those polled engage in the practice at least once a week. 25-34 year-olds are the age group most likely to dual screen, with 26 per cent of those in this age bracket admitting to doing this every day.

Unsurprisingly, the older the consumer, the less likely they are to dual screen – 64 per cent of 55+ year-olds stated they have never participated in this modern habit.

Today’s digital natives are clearly setting the agenda for future marketing practices. As connected devices become the norm, and consumers expect to be in constant contact with friends, family and their favourite brands at the click of a button, the methods brands are using to engage with consumers are beginning to shift. U.S author Mark Prensky has predicted that by 2020, people across the globe will be plugged into the ‘AORTA’ (Always On RealTime Access)2 – a term coined by Mark Anderson, the chief of the Strategic News Service. This future will see consumers constantly able to access information and news from anywhere on the planet. With this in mind, the way consumers engage digitally with any organisation – be it a retailer, a government organisation or otherwise – will transform in line with this expectation.

Given the influx of digital information and access to multiple devices, consumers are becoming more selective about which messages they pay attention to from brands. As a result, mass marketing techniques will no longer pay off. Consumers are looking for quick, digestible content that is highly relevant to their wants and needs and delivered across their preferred digital channels. The challenge for marketers now is finding out how to engage with consumers and retain their attention while they hop from one device to another, in such a short space of time.

1 / Diminishing attention spans for web, email, text and social

With consumers increasingly engaging in the practice of ‘dual screening’ and moving from Twitter to online shopping to the television set, how does this affect the channels they use to consume marketing content? As consumer attention is distracted away from reading marketing content from brands, the channels that brands are using to engage with consumers can make or break the success of a campaign.

Concentration spans are significantly impacted by this new habit, meaning that some channels naturally receive more attention than others, depending on the individual consumer. Perhaps surprisingly to some, the channel on which consumers spend the longest time interacting with marketing messages is email - 50 per cent of consumers spend on average between 5 and 30 seconds on incoming marketing emails. This suggests that the unobtrusive, opt-in nature of email continues to reign supreme. Only 32 per cent of consumers spend the same amount of time on marketing SMS texts, demonstrating that as a marketing channel, mobile continues to be challenging as a method for distributing marketing content. Incoming social posts from brands are even less likely to be read; 27 per cent of consumers spend 5 to 30 seconds reading tweets, Facebook posts or content posted on other social channels. This is perhaps surprising, considering the popularity of social media as a means to provide feedback or complaints directly to brands.

2 / Rising customer expectations

As a result of the increasing number of digital touchpoints available and the ability to engage with brands instantly at the touch of a button, consumers have more options and higher expectations in the way they interact with companies. The main communications channels – web, mobile, social and email – are in use practically simultaneously by consumers. This has a major impact on the customer journey and how and when consumers expect brands to deliver on their promises.

When looking at customer expectations and the complexity they can cause for brands, experts in the industry refer to a trend that has been building for some time – the ‘expectation economy.’ In the expectation economy, consumers have a long list of high expectations they apply to each interaction or experience they have with a retailer – be it price point, customer service, product quality or interaction with staff. These expectations have been formed through a mix of the consumer’s own shopping experiences and have been amplified by the ‘new media age,’ made up of readily available information sources and social platforms. Together these factors enable the distracted consumer to hunt down and expect the best of the best from their favourite brands.

This urgency of service and high expectation was also reflected in our research: a third of consumers (33 per cent) expect brands to contact them with relevant incentives and discounts within a day of registration or subscription to a website or service. To the consumer, this isn’t an unrealistic expectation – they are savvy to the fact that marketers collect data on them. They expect this to be used to provide quick, highly relevant discounts, services and products based on the behaviours they have shared with the brand. Effective use of customer data will only become increasingly crucial to the success or failure of marketing campaigns.

Profile of the distracted consumer

• Nearly half of respondents (49 per cent) receive between 2 – 10 emails per day from all brands they actively subscribe to
• Almost one-fifth (19 per cent) of consumers receive 11 or more marketing emails per day
• Only 8 per cent of consumers are reading every marketing email they receive, compared to 43 per cent who are reading less than half of emails sent by marketers
• Consumers are most likely to look at or read marketing content from brands on weekdays, between 5pm-11pm (23 per cent)
• 32 per cent of consumers have liked a brand on Facebook, while just 12 per cent claim to follow a brand on Twitter

Melissa is into fashion. She spends most of her free time checking out the latest trends so she can stay on the cutting edge. While shopping on the high street, she sees a poster for the retailer Jaxon, advertising their new line of shoes with a call to action that says, “text SAVE15 to 12345 to get 15% off.”

Using different devices for different stages of the purchase journey, the distracted consumer is undoubtedly complex. So how can marketers make sense of it all? Here are some actionable tips to capture attention and increase conversions:

1 / Get to know your customers

Gathering customer data gives marketers the foundation to centre their marketing around customer behaviours and preferences. This process starts with the capture of customer permission, contact information, and preferences across multiple channels. One such way to get this data is to create a set of compelling offers that are scheduled to go to a wide audience over a short period of time. This time-bound marketing generates valuable insights into individual consumer interests and preferences.

For Vouchercodes.co.uk, the leading shopping and money-saving website, a key focus over the last year has been to increase customer engagement and retention through more effective segmentation of its user-base, the creation of targeted alerts for specific customer segments and the improvement its email design. By doing this, every Vouchercodes.co.uk customer received more relevant content, which increased engagement and helped Vouchercodes.co.uk to retain customers for a longer period of time. In addition, Vouchercodes.co.uk has seen open and click-to-open rates far in excess of those for less targeted mailings.

2 / Deliver individualised experiences

Research shows that 61 per cent of consumers feel more positive about a brand when marketing messages are personalised, while 53 per cent are more likely to purchase when a brand personalises digital communications3. Designing experiences optimised to individual behaviour and preferences can be achieved with the right tools. For example;

MetLife, a leading global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programmes, found that the success rate achieved by its customer service agents was proving difficult to replicate via other channels. MetLife chose to mimic the high-touch and personalised experience of its agents – using the Responsys Interact Marketing Cloud. This campaign distributed timely email and display messages across online, email, social, mobile and display.

The messages were perfectly timed and tailored based on a customer’s observed channel behaviour and declared preferences in the profile centre. For example, customers received a targeted display ad – such as a reminder to complete an insurance application – if they weren’t being responsive to email. The same reminder could be delivered via mobile if the customer had opted-in to receive SMS messages.

This personal yet automated approach to engagement has increased MetLife’s net promoter scores to +38, and has widened the pool of customers who prefer to engage with MetLife across the digital channels vs. with an agent. What this all means is that marketers must orchestrate messages for each individual consumer, based on their profile data and preferences. This is the new path to developing long term relationships and increasing ROI.

3 / Draw on the power of brand advocates

Those who forward and share email promotions to their friends are the same customers who will return to purchase time and time again. Looking after your existing customers can reap massive rewards. In fact, marketers in the United States and Europe must bring in five and seven shoppers, respectively, to equal the revenue of one repeat purchaser.

Believing that the future of marketing is primarily digital, B&Q decided to re-invent its loyalty programme by obtaining a single customer profile across all digital channels. Once this was in place, the next step was to make its loyalty programme even more intelligent. The 100% digital loyalty scheme – B&Q Club – was initially focused on communications via owned channels like email and mobile apps, however as its B&Q Club membership grew, the retailer has included new paid channels like Facebook custom audience advertising to reach its expanding fan base. This process has revealed the power of brand advocates. Rather than chasing after too many one-time followers, B&Q continues to put its efforts into a loyalty scheme that focuses on quality, long-term relationships with fans.

4 / Look for the anomalies

Understanding individual customers and their browsing, searching and purchasing habits should alert marketers when something is out of place. These anomalies in customer behaviour can present the biggest opportunities for conversion if acted on quickly.

For example, a customer who is searching for a bikini in winter is likely to have a stronger intent to purchase than a casual browser. By personalising emails, texts or social media messages based on discrete areas of interest, a retailer has the capability to capture the attention of the distracted consumer. Picking out the smaller, out of place results from huge data sets will often yield greater returns.

Conclusion

As evidenced through the survey results, marketers are faced with communicating to consumers who are not only receiving messages across multiple channels and devices, but becoming increasingly selective about what they tune into and for how long. To cut through the noise, marketers must remember that turning up the volume on mass marketing is not the answer. Rather, marketers must begin to orchestrate individual interactions with customers based on their profile data and preferences, and with the right technology, they can do it at massive scale.