Marketing Spam is a Huge Problem
"The answer to the billion-message problem isn't another message. It's making every message relevant," says Jema Birkmeyer, VP, Strategic Accounts at Attentive.
Topics
Black Friday once marked the beginning of the holiday shopping rush. Now, many consumers are planning and making purchases well before the biggest promotions arrive, changing the way brands need to approach the season.
Economic pressure is making shoppers more deliberate about where they spend. They are comparing products, considering value and deciding which brands deserve their attention earlier in the year. For marketers, that means the traditional two-week promotional window is giving way to a much longer path to purchase.
This shift also puts more pressure on brands to stay relevant throughout that journey. Sending more messages is not necessarily the answer when consumers are already dealing with a crowded stream of offers, recommendations and product information.
According to Jema Birkmeyer, VP, Strategic Accounts at Attentive, Black Friday is no longer the clear starting point for holiday shopping. “Brands need to think of and plan the holiday season as a July-December conversation, not a two-week campaign. The goal is to get on the shopper’s shortlist early, and then stay relevant all the way through December,” she says.
Birkmeyer talks about shifting shopping seasons, the pressure on marketers to stay relevant amongst stiff competition, and the debate between privacy and personalisation in messaging.
Full interview;
Consumers are planning and buying much earlier than before. What’s driving this shift, and how should brands rethink the way they approach the season?
Black Friday used to be the starting gun.
Once Black Friday comes around, many consumers are already halfway through the race. The shift can be partly attributed to economic pressures, which are causing people to plan their purchases earlier, compare brands more carefully, and spend more time deciding what’s actually worth their money.
Our recent research found that 71% of shoppers plan to start purchasing before Black Friday, and 62% will start planning before November. Consumers are making lists, comparing products, and deciding which brands are worth their attention before big holiday promotions hit.
Brands need to think of and plan the holiday season as a July-December conversation, not a two-week campaign. The goal is to get on the shopper’s shortlist early and then stay relevant all the way through December.
Are brands finally moving beyond price-led promotions, or do discounts still drive most purchasing decisions?
Discounts absolutely still matter, but relevance is becoming just as important as the discount.
Four in five shoppers told us they can be motivated by a discount of 40% or less, suggesting consumers aren’t simply holding out for the biggest deal. They’re responding to offers that feel relevant and valuable to them, such as a promotion tied to what they’ve actually shown interest in.
The opportunity for brands is to stop treating price as the entire strategy. A relevant offer at the right time on something you actually want can be more compelling than a bigger discount on something you don’t.
People are becoming far more intentional about how they spend. Does that force brands to change how they communicate about value rather than price?
Consumers are giving purchases more scrutiny. About a quarter of shoppers (26%) are even holding off on things they want, and saving them for BFCM, which tells you just how deliberate people have gotten about timing and value.
Product education and non-sales-oriented content can help brands build a relationship with shoppers before they are ready to buy. For example, a beauty brand might use someone’s purchase history and preferences to recommend the right haircare routine and explain how the products meet their specific needs.
That kind of relevance helps shoppers feel confident they’re buying something they’ll actually use and value.
Personalisation has been a marketing priority for years, yet many brands still struggle with fragmented data and disconnected customer journeys. From your perspective, what’s holding them back?
What’s holding many brands back is a fragmented tech stack. They use separate tools for different channels, making it difficult to connect customer data and coordinate the customer journey.
That’s changing as more mature platforms allow marketers to manage multiple channels through one unified interface, where data, insights, and customer interactions can work together rather than remain siloed.
With AI layered on top, even smaller teams can use real-time customer signals to move beyond one-size-fits-all campaigns and deliver true 1:1 personalisation without having to build every journey by hand. This gives marketers more time to focus on strategy and creativity.
AI is becoming part of the shopping journey, with more people turning to tools like ChatGPT and Gemini before making a purchase. Does that change the way brands need to think about discovery, or is traditional search still the bigger opportunity?
Traditional search is still king, but AI is creating another discovery surface that marketers need to influence. We found that 67% of shoppers have used an AI chatbot to help them shop in the past three months, which gives them even more information to sort through before making a decision.
That means answer engine optimisation, or AEO, needs to become part of brands’ discovery strategies. Marketers need to understand how their products appear in AI-generated answers, and what information those tools pull from.
They can then provide clear, accurate product information that keeps their brands visible and competitive.
Consumers don’t seem to mind hearing from brands more often as long as every interaction feels relevant. Why do so many brands still struggle with this, and how can they get that balance right?
Marketing spam is a huge problem. Attentive found that 65% of shoppers are open to hearing from brands more frequently when those messages are relevant, yet too many marketers still determine cadence based on a campaign calendar rather than the individual customer.
The difference is meaningful: we see behaviour-triggered journeys generate 14 times more revenue per send than batch campaigns. AI can help brands respond to customer behaviour in real time, and determine who needs to hear from them, when, and with what message.
The answer to the billion-message problem isn’t another message. It’s making every message relevant.
Consumers expect brands to know them, but they also expect their privacy to be respected. Is the industry striking the right balance, or is trust becoming the biggest challenge for personalisation?
The industry is still working toward the right balance. Personalisation can have a negative impact on trust when it reveals more about what a brand knows than how that knowledge benefits the customer.
Consumers are open to brands using their data when it creates a clear benefit, such as surfacing a relevant offer or reminding them about something they were already considering. The key is using consented data and customer signals to make the shopping journey easier and more useful.
When personalisation reflects what a customer has actually shown interest in and improves their experience, it feels helpful rather than intrusive.
ALSO READ: How GrowthLoop Wants to Make Marketing a Verifiable Science
