Earlier this month, Intuit released a new report titled ‘Brand Trust In the Age of Information Overload’, which revealed brand trust is the most important influence on purchases. Chief sales officer and head of international at Intuit Mailchimp, Adam Anger, sat down with Marketing Mag to discuss the key findings of the report.

Marketing Mag: Why has brand trust become the most influential factor in purchasing decisions for Australian consumers?

AA: Inflation and a cost-of-living crisis have meant that Australian brands are fighting for the wallets of Australian consumers. As a result, shoppers are now facing an overload of promotions and offers from competing brands. With so many offers put in front of them daily, consumers need another way to differentiate between which brands they engage with, and they often prioritise trust when making their purchase decisions. 

MM: How can brands effectively build and maintain trust in an era where misinformation is prevalent?

AA: Authenticity and transparency are key to building trust in this era of misinformation. As a marketer, this means you must ensure your brand’s actions align with the personality and values you project to the world. 

MM: What are the key differences in purchasing motivations between older and younger Australian consumers, as revealed in your report?

AA: Regardless of age, brand trust is a top purchasing motivator for all shoppers. Where we saw the biggest difference is in the value they place on customer service. For 55 percent of older consumers, great customer service makes them more likely to buy from a brand, compared to a third of younger consumers. 

Young Aussies, on the other hand, are more likely to remain loyal to high-quality brands despite the cost of living, with responsible sourcing and sustainability seen as worth the additional expense. More than 50 percent of young Aussies are willing to hand over their data if it means taking the guesswork out of shopping online (compared to just 35 percent for Aussies as a whole). 

MM: How can marketers strike the right balance between frequent communication and avoiding email fatigue?

AA: We found that six is the number of emails Australian consumers will tolerate per brand per week before they unsubscribe. But this doesn’t mean a brand should repeatedly send the same unimaginative emails nearly every day. When it comes to engaging with them, personalised content is the most popular with 60 percent of Australians. Brands can strike the right balance by understanding the nuances across their audiences and appealing to those individual preferences with targeted content and strategies.

MM: The report highlights nearly half of Aussies look for discount codes before purchasing. How and why should brands leverage this insight?

AA: It’s important to remember that discounting can be more strategic than site-wide sales or broad promo codes. It’s another area where personalisation can offer a distinct advantage. We’ve seen retailers offer targeted incentives to groups of customers with a high lifetime value, harnessing predictive analytics to entice those who are more likely to have a higher cart size. Automations, too, can help marketers target lapsed customers, offering discounts only to consumers you might otherwise lose. With the right tools and strategies, discounts should unlock untapped revenue, not dig into existing profits.

MM: What strategies can brands use to ensure their marketing emails are engaging and not repetitive or unimaginative?

AA: Listen to your customers. Whether it’s through clicks, purchases, reviews, or even unsubscribe requests, they are telling you what they want. When marketers analyse and act on customer data, they can adjust their content to deliver more value to those customers, which builds brand trust along the way. 

Personalisation is essential to keeping your audiences engaged. Today, marketers can leverage any number of AI and analytics tools to target customers with increasing complexity, but even the simplest considerations can go a long way. For example, 54 percent of consumers in Australia appreciate thoughtful marketing, which could be the opportunity to opt out of brand communication at difficult or sensitive times, such as Valentine’s Day or Christmas. This gesture doesn’t require outsized effort, but it can generate the kind of goodwill that strengthens long-term customer relationships.

MM: How can brands use customer data responsibly to enhance personalisation while ensuring privacy and security?

AA: Using customer data responsibly starts with guarding your customers’ privacy. Transparency around how information will and won’t be used is paramount, and it’s important to take measures to ensure your customers’ data is secure. Honouring the trust your customer has given you often goes a step beyond that, including tailoring when and how you reach customers, whether it’s through organic search, flagship stores or personalised content. This shows that you’re listening to and acting on the cues your audience is giving you. 

MM: How important is transparency in company actions to maintaining consumer trust, and how can brands achieve this?

AA: Transparency is essential in building and maintaining a relationship with your customers, particularly during tough financial times. You can often cement your relationship with customers by simply acknowledging the forces at play and explaining their impact on your business, particularly with regard to price increases. Think hard about your brand identity and ensure that what you present to your customers is rooted in truth. Remember that your customers are often going through the same struggles as you.

MM: The report highlights consumers are turned off by biased or partisan commentary from brands. How should brands approach social and political issues in communications?

AA: The right approach is going to be different for every brand because audience expectations are different, too. When a brand jumps in with partisan commentary that feels out-of-step with the rest of its work, it risks getting a reaction it didn’t bargain for. However, when you talk about issues that align with your brand’s values, you can actually build trust with your audience – as long as that talk is supported by your brand’s actions and practices. 

MM: What are the most effective ways to galvanise brand advocates and leverage word-of-mouth recommendations?

AA: Friends, family and customer testimonials are some of the most trusted sources of information, especially with the rise of misinformation. A marketing-savvy way to harness the power of brand advocates is to reward them through recommend-a-friend campaigns or incentivise them to leave product reviews. This can inspire repeat purchases from the advocate as well as encourage new buyers. For 41 percent of consumers, great testimonials have the power to restore lost brand trust.

MM: Given 68 percent of shoppers stay loyal to a brand that lowered or locked its prices, how can brands balance pricing strategies with maintaining trust and loyalty?

AA: Sometimes increasing your prices is unavoidable. However, raising your prices doesn’t have to mean losing valuable customers. Transparency is the key to maintaining trust. Be honest about why prices are going up. When brands have communicated about price increases clearly, over half of customers stayed loyal. 

MM: How can AI and automation be used to enhance personalised marketing efforts without losing the human touch?

AA: A strong AI strategy builds systems around tools that work for you. Automating email sends or leveraging AI to segment recipients can allow for more specific, effective targeting and gives customers the gift of fewer and better messages. This gives your brand the gift of time to focus on new ideas and drive deeper human connections.

Also, read B2B brand building lessons with Vista Australia’s Linda McDonald.