In 2015, the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated more than 340 consumer products were recalled—everything from baby products, furniture and home appliances, to personal care products and beyond.
Staring down a recall is never easy, but once it’s issued, one of the biggest challenges facing consumer product and retail brands is recall fatigue, or low response rates.
You can send direct mail but many people will think it’s junk mail and discard it or disregard it altogether.
A press release might be effective but not every customer will learn about the recall from the news. Although some consumers might receive alerts from the CPSC, an email, a tweet or a Facebook post can easily be missed.
In fact, when news about a food recall is issued, 84 percent of Americans say they pay close attention to it, but less than 60 percent say they have ever checked their homes for recalled food, a report found.
If your company is suffering from recall fatigue it can affect your bottom line—especially if a recall is re-issued—and most importantly, your customers’ safety.
A better way to handle recalls
Instead of spinning your wheels trying to figure out the best way to alert your customers about a recall, you must use research and data analytics to understand your customers and the best ways to connect and engage with them so they’ll take action.
Then you can create multichannel marketing campaigns just as you would for lead generation, conversion and customer loyalty.
Here, read on for 4 ways to prevent recall fatigue and get your customers’ attention.
1. Start with sales data.
If you know that approximately 80 percent of your customers use a credit card or a debit card to pay for their purchases, it’s easy to pull together the sales data and create a list of customers who purchased the recalled product.
Then you can integrate other data points such as email opt-in history, call center data and media usage to fill in most of the gaps and round out your list.
2. Integrate video marketing.
Marketing experts agree, video and personalized video in particular, is one of the most effective channels for engaging consumers and should be a part of any multichannel marketing campaign.
In fact, according to a survey by Animoto, 43 percent of consumers are more likely to read email newsletters that include links to video and 56 percent have watched a company video that came through email.
Personalized videos should include an introduction, remind the consumer that a recall letter was sent, explain why the product was recalled, how it will be repaired or replaced and include information about how consumers can take action.
3. Think beyond direct mail.
According to a report by Experian, 92 percent of baby boomers use text and 94 percent of those 70 and older do as well. Rather than only sending a direct mail piece to people 62 and older because you assume that’s how to engage with this demographic, use data and research analytics to truly understand the channel they prefer.
4. Share on social media
Paid social media is an effective way to target customers. According to a report by eMarketer, of 76 percent of B2C companies who use promoted posts, 61 percent said they are effective.
Although Facebook is still the most popular social media platform for most consumers, you can use data and research analytics to understand how to target millennials who are projected to spend $200 billion annually starting in 2017.
In fact, 88 percent of millennials get news from Facebook at least occasionally, 83 percent from YouTube and 50 percent from Instagram, a report by the American Press Institute found.
Dealing with a recall is never an easy feat, but if you use research and data analytics to guide your marketing plan, recall fatigue will be a thing of the past.
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