• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 23, 2023

Email addresses remain the most freely shared piece of information by consumers. But that doesn’t mean people want marketing emails, judging by The Mobile Consumer 2023, a global study form Airship, conducted with Sapio Research. 

Of consumers polled worldwide, 86% will provide their email address to a company.  But 79% say they ignore or delete marketing emails even from brands they love at least half the time -- up 1% year-over-year. 

Gen Zers are less likely than older consumers to unsubscribe or delete emails by scanning sender or subject lines. Instead, they say they don’t often check their email, or set up a second email account that they rarely check. And they use anonymous and fake email addresses. 

Here are typical behaviors concerning email:

• I often unsubscribe from brand emails — 43% globally, 46% in U.S. 
• I mark emails for deletion by scanning who it is from — 33% globally, 37% in U.S.
• I mark emails for deletion by scanning subject lines — 31% globally, 35% in U.S.
• I use a secondary email account that I rarely check — 20% globally, 21% in U.S.
• I don’t often check my email — 18% globally, 16% in U.S. 
• I provide anonymous email addresses (e.g., via Sign In with Apple) — 11% globally, 13% in U.S. 
• I provide fake email addresses — 7% globally, 13% in U.S.

In general, people seem more inclined to share everything with brands. For instance, 77% said yes to email addresses in 2022. 

And this year, 78% will provide their interests that are relevant to the brand, up from 67%, moving that category into second place.

In addition, 77% will give their name, versus 67% last year. 

Moreover, 70% will supply their communication preferences (i.e., channel, topic, frequency), versus 59% in 2022, while 60% will offer their mobile number for text messages, compared to 53% in the prior year. 

Similar upticks are seen in providing postal addresses, in-store location, social values (environmental, moral, political or religious), securely stored payment information and mobile information for phone calls.  

People desire personalization, including recommendations and offers based on past behavior or purchases (41%), interests and preferences supplied to the brand (40%) and content and offers targeted to their current location (34%). 

Globally, the top three types of personalization that consumers find to be most useful are “recommendations and offers based on past behavior or purchases” (41%), “interests and preferences supplied to the brand” (40%), and “content and offers targeted to their current location” (34%).

Interestingly, “predictive suggestions based on everything the brand knows about them” ranked lowest among all types of personalization for all countries other than Singapore.

These findings indicate that consumers want experiences personalized to them, but basic information doesn’t go far enough and advanced methods walk a fine line between being helpful and creepy.

How often do they want app-based messaging from brands? More consumers said “immediately, and as often as it happens” for five of eight different kinds of messaging. 

When asked about how often they like to receive specific types of app-based messaging from brands, more consumers indicated “immediately, and as often as it happens” as their preferred frequency for five of eight different types of messaging.

For seven types of messages where there is year-over-year data, findings show a decline in respondents saying they “don’t want these types of messages” and an increase in those that want messages “only as they’re using the specific app.”

While consumers may have varied preferences for the frequencies of app-based messaging, these findings illustrate why it is important for brands to give customers control over the types of messages they receive, as well as where and how often they get them.

The takeaway? “Growing data privacy regulations and advancements from Apple and Android are speeding brands towards a customer-first future, where transparency and control make it easier than ever for customers to shut down brands that aren’t meeting their needs,” says Thomas Butta, chief strategy and marketing officer, Airship. 

Butta adds: “To gain the level of customer understanding necessary to succeed, brands must lean into mobile app experiences that offer always-on utility, convenience and individualized control — all of which reach much deeper into the hearts and minds of customers — allowing brands to respect, reward and serve customers better over time.”

Sapio Research surveyed 11,000 consumers in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Brazil.