A survey of more than 2,700 marketers by Adobe Systems Inc. shows that personalization is the most important capability in regard to future marketing efforts — and for good reason: Further research reveals that on average, businesses personalizing the customer experience report a 14 percent uplift in sales.
“This briefing is further proof that personalization has indeed become top-of-mind for companies aiming to improve the customer experience,” states the Digital Trends 2015 report released by Adobe and Econsultancy. Targeting and optimization jumped from the third most important priority in a 2014 survey to the top spot. Content optimization and social media engagement follow closely (see chart 1).
B2B marketers are closing the gap on those working in B2C. B2C marketers are 18 percent more likely than their B2B counterparts to be focusing their efforts on targeting and personalization, whereas in 2014 they were 55 percent more likely than B2B marketers to say the same.
Marketers join up the channels
Another key trend for 2015 is the way that businesses are now thinking of personalization across the whole customer journey rather than in a particular marketing silo. Two in five (38 percent) organizations agree that omnichannel personalization will become a reality in 2015, with respondents being 65 percent more likely to agree than disagree with this statement.
Joining up data across channels (which in turn leads to better use of data) is a prerequisite of effective personalization and will be key in supporting this omnichannel vision, but only 12 percent consider it a priority for the year ahead.
Almost 60 percent of respondents agree that cross-channel marketing will be a key focus for them in 2015. Further analysis of the data revealed that respondents in North America were slightly less likely to see cross-channel marketing as a focus; 50 percent agreed, compared to 62 percent and 65 percent in Europe and Asia respectively.
Targeting tops tactics
For client-side marketers, multichannel marketing is very much on the radar, though not quite as high on the agenda as personalization. Targeting and personalization has emerged as a key trend in the digital marketing industry. Nearly one-third of company respondents select it as a top priority for 2015.
The survey also asked marketers to give their view on the most exciting opportunity now and in five years’ time. Customer experience holds the top spot both now and in five years. Personalization is one of the opportunities that will be more exciting to marketers in 2019 than in 2015, as well as big data, multichannel campaign management, marketing automation and location-based services (See chart 2).
A link to the full report can be found in the Additional Web Resources box at SalesandMarketing.com.
Chart 2. Respondents cited personalization, big data, multichannel campaign management and marketing automation as four opportunities that will be more exciting in five years than they are now.
