January 8, 2018
9 out of 10 marketers need help improving their personalization strategy
CHICAGO (January 8, 2018) – According to a new study from Yes Lifecycle Marketing, two in five marketers don’t tailor their initiatives to audiences of different age groups, thus missing on substantial engagement opportunities as consumers demand more customized content.
The report, “A Blueprint for Using Audience Insights to Inform Marketing Communication Strategies,” is based on an annual survey of 300 marketers online and during Shop.org. It found that just 11 percent of marketers claim they can personalize all content in real time, indicating that nine out of 10 can improve their personalization efforts.
Yes Lifecycle Marketing’s study also found about a quarter of marketers (27 percent) can execute basic personalization tactics, such as using a customer’s name or birthday. Another 26 percent can personalize based on browsing or purchase history, but say it’s tedious to do so. And 17 percent of marketers state they cannot personalize content because they still have trouble collecting and analyzing data.
“Personalization isn’t limited to a customer’s name; and marketers who go beyond this simple data point in order to customize communications will reap the benefits,” said Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “Marketers should tailor content to their customers’ habits and demographics. Fairly easy-to-implement adjustments, such as triggered campaigns and lifecycle messaging, will go far.”
Although personalization is a good strategy for engaging consumers of all ages, younger consumers find it especially important. Nearly half of centennials, age 18-21, (45 percent) and millennials, age 22-37, (49 percent) make purchases because of the level of personalization within a brand’s email content, meaning that personalization translates into revenue.
Some brands already practice personalization. In fact, of brands that personalize content based on age, two-thirds do so via email. Social media (38 percent) and website (35 percent) round out the three channels that marketers are most likely to personalize content based on age.
“The takeaway from the data is obvious: consumers want marketers to personalize content based on their individual characteristics and attributes, and marketers still struggle to do so,” said Michael Iaccarino, CEO and chairman of Infogroup, the parent company of Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “To alleviate personalization woes, marketers need a partner that can help them enhance and leverage their customer data in order to improve personalization, and as a result, increase revenue.”
Additional findings from the report include:
• Less than a quarter of marketers personalize display (24 percent) or direct mail (23 percent) content based on customer age. • Driving revenue (40 percent), acquiring new customers (24 percent), and engaging customers (17 percent) are the three biggest priorities for marketers heading into 2018. • Only 16 percent of marketers believe millennials are most influenced to purchase by the email channel; yet 67 percent of millennials report finding email valuable when researching products.
To learn more about how marketers can personalize content by age, download the full report here.
Yes Lifecycle Marketing provides solutions that orchestrate cross-channel marketing communications to drive results and revenue. This is accomplished by leveraging technology, data, analytics, creative, and strategy to activate and optimize insights-driven, real-time, relevant communications. This holistic approach gives marketers the ability to source a full-service offering of best-of-breed technology and solutions from a single vendor in order to achieve their desired outcomes across all on and offline channels. To learn more, call 1-877-937-6245, email [email protected] or visit www.yeslifecyclemarketing.com.
Infogroup is a leading provider of data and data-driven marketing solutions. Infogroup provides data, technology and services that help marketers acquire new customers and maximize the value of existing relationships. The company’s data and marketing solutions help clients of all sizes, from local SMBs to FORTUNE 100™ enterprises, increase sales and customer loyalty. Infogroup provides both digital and traditional marketing channel expertise that is enhanced by access to our proprietary data on 280 million individuals and 24 million businesses. For more information, visit www.infogroup.com.