98% of Marketers Agree Personalization Helps Advance Customer Relationships

As marketers continue to personalize the customer experience, more are beginning to see the benefits of doing so in terms of strengthening their relationships with clients.

Recently, Evergage conducted the “2018 Trends in Personalization” report to determine how customers are responding to personalization efforts by marketers. Furthermore, the report took a closer look at how marketers believe their initiatives are paying off. The results were decisive: 98 percent of respondents agreed that personalization helps advance customer relationships, with 74 percent stating it has a “strong” or “extreme” impact.

However, marketers are still not entirely confident in their personalization methodologies. Only 12 percent claimed that they were “very” or “extremely” satisfied with the level of personalization in their marketing efforts. About 38 percent claimed that they were “moderately” satisfied.

“As buyers are increasingly exposed to effective forms of personalization, we’re reaching a tipping point – irrelevant, cookie-cutter recommendations won’t cut it anymore,” said Evergage CMO Andy Zimmerman. “People want to engage with companies that ‘know’ them and their preferences, and marketers need to deliver.”

Eighty-eight percent of marketers agree that their customers and prospects now expect a personalized experience.

The Growing Importance of Email Marketing Personalization

Previous research suggests that marketing personalization goes a long way, especially as it pertains to email.

“The Email Individualization Imperative” report from The Relevancy Group and OneSpot recently found that marketers had an average open rate of 28 percent for personalized promotional emails and newsletters in the second quarter of 2018.

This was compared to 27 percent for the second quarter of 2017, and 25 percent for the second quarter of 2016, highlighting the growing necessity for personalization.