Survey: Content Marketers Struggle to Make Emotional Connection with Audiences

New research shows that a majority of marketing professionals believe they are efficiently utilizing behavioral and attitudinal customer data to create content, but most content consumers are unsatisfied with how enterprises interpret their buying habits.

The “Inspire Customers With Emotionally Engaging Content” study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Persado has discovered that 89 percent of marketers claim they are “excellent” at using behavioral and attitudinal customer data. However, 58 percent of consumers believe that brands’ abilities to make a resonating offer is “poor.”

“The survey data confirms consumer demand for more personalized experiences, even as marketers struggle to create emotionally relevant content that consistently performs,” said Alex Vratskides, co-founder and CEO of Persado.

Just 15 percent of content consumers are “very satisfied” with brands’ abilities to understand what inspires them to communicate and make a purchase. Despite this data, only 28 percent of marketers intend to make it a top priority to improve in personalized messaging and offerings next year.

Customers Express Dissatisfaction with Marketing Content

This is not the first publication to highlight customers’ dissatisfaction with content initiatives. The “Rethinking Content Consumption” report from Rapt Media found that 43 percent of content consumers do not believe that online marketing ads are tailored to their interests.

About 62 percent said that the content they discover on their own is more personalized. Additionally, 67 percent claimed that they are receiving too much interruptive, “pushy” content, and 55 percent say it still is not relevant to them.

“Although programmatic push messaging is a form of implicit personalization, it is perceived by consumers as irrelevant and inauthentic,” said Erika Trautman, founder and CEO of Rapt Media.