NEW DELHI: Indian marketers are wasting time and money by sending consumers multiple messages on multiple platforms and getting poor response rates as a result, according to a new study.

Spocto, a data analytics marketing platform, surveyed 5,000 consumers and marketers each across 10 Indian cities, and found that seven out of ten consumers received multiple messages on different platforms from the same brand within a one-week period.

More than two thirds (68%) of marketers were aware they were spamming consumers as they contacted them via social media, email, calls and SMS.

Most also admitted they were in the dark about the number of times they connected with a consumer on different platforms and they were in total agreement that improvements in targeting methods could reduce their marketing budgets.

Sumeet Srivastava, CEO, spocto, described this as "a burgeoning problem in the space of marketing today".

More avenues to reach consumers was leading to more spam, he said, with the consequences including "wastage of budgets, increased expenditure and low conversion rates".

But if consumers received a promotional message on a platform of their preference, the study said that response rates could be as high as 68%.

"Consumers today are more responsive than ever if approached sensibly on a platform of their choice," Srivastava noted.

"Marketers need to combine technology with thorough research in order to target the customers at the right time on the right platform," he added.

That will mean working rather smarter than at present. To take one instance, just 58% of marketers currently personalise communications but 83% of consumers expect that.

Some sectors are worse than others in the matter of spam: in the survey, e-commerce, food, banking, financial services and insurance, travel, education, jobs and real estate emerged as the worst offenders.

Data sourced from Times of India; additional content by Warc staff