Is it time to get personal?

Is it finally time that your company started to get personal? An ongoing trend of personalizing online marketing to make a direct and meaningful impact on potential customers seems to be on the rise. It also seems to be working according to many marketers throughout the country. In some recent research published by Business2Community, it seems that this current trend just may be a long term strategy. Below are just some of the published results:

  • The vast majority (98%) of marketers believe that personalization has at least some impact on advancing customer relationships, and 70% believe it has a “strong” or “extremely strong” impact. And 85% of marketers believe that their customers expect personalized experiences.
  • Email remains the most-personalized channel (78%), followed by web (58%), and in-person (42%). Interestingly, online advertising trails behind at 35%. Given the budget many marketers dedicate to their advertising campaigns, it’s interesting that many are not personalizing their efforts.

  • That being said, marketers are becoming more sophisticated in their personalization approach. Usage of machine-learning/algorithmic personalization is up from 26% last year to 40% this year. Emails triggered based on a person’s site behavior is up from 35% last year to 45% this year.
  • Marketers continue to see strong, measurable results from their personalization efforts. The majority (90%) see at least some lift, while more than half (58%) see a lift of 10% or more. Of those marketers using machine learning, 77% report a lift of 10% or more.
  • This ROI is translating into continued investment. The vast majority (97%) are planning to maintain or increase their investment in personalization over the next year, and the percentage of those planning to increase it rose from 37% to 48% this year. Still, 74% of marketers believe that personalization should be a bigger priority in their businesses.

-Written by Kevin Sawyer