Thursday, March 11, 2010

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Survey Results, Part 2: Assessing the Annoyance Factor

By Juliann Grant, Vice President and Scott Sommer, Jacobs Engineering

Are you worried that your marketing communications may be not hitting the mark? Do you find that as the noise level rises in our markets, are you worried that your communications are getting passed over for other things?

In our last e-news, we shared the results of a survey that Scott Sommer from Jacobs Engineering and I had presented at a conference that highlighted buyer preferences.

To Refresh Your Memory

We sent a 9 question survey to approximately 300 end users who are buyers of technology products and services. We received 77 responses in total, which did provide consistent results to draw some conclusions.

Last issue we uncovered the 1 in 100 Factor, which means about 1 in 100 marketing contacts results in a buyer taking any further action. We also explored desired communication frequency, what they typically read, and what they would like to see more of in the communications they receive. If you missed it, here it is.

Uncovering the Annoyance Factor

Why do we like some communications and dislike others? We wanted to get to the bottom of what turns someone off to a marketing ad or exposure. So we asked the question, "What are a few things that you find will turn you off to a marketing ad or exposure, with a list of answers that needed to be rated on scale of 1 -5, where 1= not annoyed and 5 = very annoyed.

The answers were:

• Does not provide new information
• Do not trust the ad content
• Unknown email sender
• Too many messages from a vendor
• Not related to what I care about

Here's how the answers broke down, in order of the strongest reaction to the least:

#1 Annoyance: Too Many Messages from a Vendor

This was the strongest reaction from all the answers. Often times companies don't realize how many times they are touching a customer in a given week or month. It's not just marketing and sales, but service offers too. When it gets to be too much, there's a higher likelihood that someone will ignore forthcoming communications, and potentially damage a brand's reputation. These pictures are from a Verizon campaign last year that I blogged about. It's clear evidence of what too much means.

#2 Annoyance: Unknown Email Sender

Now, we're starting to see more of a tilt to what is truly annoying. Some comments were revealing about behaviors and other factors that add weight:

Normally just delete without looking
Bad formatting or Time limited

#3 Annoyance: Not related to what I care about

We hear the word relevancy often when we speak of developing content for any marketing or sales campaign. What information would be useful and relevant to your audience? This response reinforces the importance of relevance, and how it needs to be a priority when we are developing new content for an audience.

Sometimes it's hard to step out of our day-to-day thinking and make this important connection. Early in my marketing career, I remember how excited I was when we finished a brochure or case study, I couldn't wait to get it out to people. But I learned that not all information is equal, and what I thought was important was not necessarily what my audience thought was important. It's a fine line.

The next two answers had the least reaction of all.

#4 Annoyance: Do not trust the ad content

• 59% found it annoying
• 41% found it not annoying

Trust is a big issue, no matter what. We all need to be responsible communicators, especially in the social age when people can make comments about a program or a campaign - good, bad or otherwise. A survey comment added here: "Especially when coupled with a poor subject in an email. Not a shocking comment, but it raised an important point that if any of these issues are layered in any way, it will spike the annoyance factor.

#5 Annoyance: Does not provide new information

• 51% found it annoying
• 49% didn't find it annoying

Well, I felt annoyed at this answer. No just kidding, but really I had anticipated a stronger reaction. Realistically, we will never know what people will and retain. Therefore, it is useful to repeat important information, especially if it is time sensitive. But this doesn't mean all the content is regurgitated from somewhere. It's important to balance information that is new and repeated to cover all the bases. Apparently this wasn't as big a factor as I had originally anticipated, and it is not a big turn off in our communications. Good to know. One of the survey comments was:

Just the same old boring stuff with a different slant.

Conclusions

It is a good time to reflect on your marketing programs and make sure that you are not falling in any of these annoyance traps. What seem like obvious concerns, we often do see the world through our audience's minds. Like most marketers, we want to be delivering useful, good content that does not annoy our audiences, but inspires them to take an action or learn more about a topic. Being mindful is half the battle.

Once you are assured that your campaigns are in line, then it may be time to evaluate how you can better serve your audiences. If you are managing a large contact list and response rates have been the same and not increasing, then it may be time to change things up to reengage your audience, and offer avenues to provide feedback about what they want to know most.