Companies Sell Your Data For Marketing

Companies sell your data to for marketing and intrusive advertisements follow us around the internet.

Both of these practices are accepted as the norm and even unnoticed by huge numbers of people. We are used to ignoring constant distractions that pop up in front of us on our devices. The problem is marketers think the internet was invented for them to push marketing messages in front of us at all the wrong times!

No the world wide web was not invented by a marketer, it was invented by computer scientists and is far more to the world than just marketing messages, it is more about the free flow of information and messaging, linking people together and building communities.

Many enterprises are still not using this amazing technology to ensure harmonious customer experiences and long-term loyalty. In some instances, businesses are even reselling our data to third party so called “partner” companies to use for marketing purposes.

Consumers are disconnected, pop up advertisements are rife! The people who notice them are switching on ad blocking software and opting out of mailing lists at an alarming rate (another blog about this on the way).

Internet users are sick of a constant bombardment from misinformed marketers with no strategic approach, running poorly executed tactical campaigns with no foresight or organised top down structured approach to organisational goals or customer loyalty programmes.

Ok Now let me introduce you to Donna:-

My friend Donna recently booked two air tickets to Rome in July; she finished her booking and then visited Facebook to tell her friends. An advertisement immediately popped up in her news feed for a special offer on tours around Rome. She then immediately had an email with a voucher for suntan cream delivered to her inbox.

This experience left a bad taste in her mouth, she will think twice now about booking with this once “trusted” airline on her next trip abroad.

She mentioned to me that she had recently booked a trip to Las Vegas with Virgin. On this occasion, no intrusive advertisements appeared in her news feed and no email from third parties arrived. In future, she will of course try to book with them. Unlike some corporations, they clearly know what a good marketing strategy is!

Sure, a business may have revenue goals, but the lack of customer journey and planning is going to be their downfall.

The wanton desires for results from marketing campaigns push marketers and agencies to develop these badly planned campaigns and tactics. If some time had been given to strategic planning and implementation the customers would not be crossing over to more ethical organisations. These better “customer centric” businesses are set up for long term growth and stability. Loyalty from their customers is of paramount importance (they pay your salary and your shareholders dividends)!

Many Companies Still Do Sell Your Data for Marketing purposes, hence people are using ad blockers!

Marketers need to remember what it was like to be a normal consumer and internet user, what was is it like when you got bombarded by telemarketers with no charisma calling you at 8pm trying to sell you double glazing when you had just bought a brand new house or windows?

No thought is given to how marketing tactics are viewed by people outside of the marketing department. Intrusive irrelevant advertisements and communications dissuade potential or existing customers from ever buying your product or service again.

Perhaps it’s about time you lived in the real world for a few weeks, try to be on social media to be social, open up your own Twitter account perhaps and switch off your advert blocking software. See how inexperienced marketers with a lack of up to date data are attempting to sell you products and services you don’t want or need.

The challenge we all have as marketers is to make sure the right information gets in front of the right people at just the right time, not too early or too late and ideally before our competition begins to disrupt our relationships.

Remember if your special offers are too quick and too intrusive it may put people them off your brand permanently! Some people will not consciously notice if content is tailored specifically. Others would rather not receive communications everywhere they look to buy your stuff! If they are in a research phase when considering buying a product or service this may send them to a less intrusive competitor.

My advice is to take your time to work out your strategy, imagine you are in the customers’ shoes, imagine you know nothing about marketing and you have no time to mess around. Making a buying decision would be easy, unless you are overwhelmed with irrelevant information and pushed to make premature decisions.

Make sure you invest the right amount of resources to obtain the results you require without just launching tactics that could cost you your customers!

If you would like to discuss a planning session on how I can help please email me nat@natschooler.com or tweet me for a faster response @natschooler