“Personalized experiences are about delivering contextually relevant experiences to your prospects and customers, based on what you know about them, where they are in the purchase journey, and what they are looking to achieve. It is becoming more evident that marketers who consistently deliver personalized cross-channel experiences are seeing moderate to substantial conversion improvements.” – Rocco Albano, VP of Customer Experience Strategy at Merkle
Merkle surveyed more than 200 marketers at major North American brands to gauge marketing strategies and effectiveness. Personalization continues to be at the heart of getting consumers to engage with brands,
Getting That Email Address Is Critical
When it comes to making an emotional connection with consumers, marketers say they prefer personalized email. With so many data points available, marketers can target messages directly to consumer needs and preferences. An offer for something you’re interested in will always attract more attention than a generic advertisement.
That’s a big part of why 68% said they prioritize collecting email addresses over other customer data points. Once they have the email, it gives them a direct connection to the consumer. Combined with other data points, it represents an opportunity to target specific customers with specific offers.
As email has grown in popularity, there’s been a similar decrease in the amount of money being spent on direct mail. Nearly half of marketers (48%) said they have decreased their direct mail budgets.
Personalization At Scale
Personalizing and customization email at scale is exceptionally difficult unless you have some help from MarTech or AdTech platforms. If marketers don’t have the infrastructure to support personalization, companies are outsourcing it. Depending on the function, 55% to 69% report that are outsourcing their marketing or working with outside vendors to manage campaigns.
You can read the full report from Merkle’s Q3 2019 report here. IT also include insights on CRM, Promotion, and Digital Transformation.