Majority of Marketers Believe Content Personalization is Essential to Online Marketing Success

A report conducted by Ecoconsultancy, in association with Adobe, recently revealed that 6 in 10 company marketers agree that the ability to personalize content is fundamental to their online strategy’s success.

Furthermore, 54 percent of individuals say they are committed to providing a more personalized Web experience. To create a more personalized Web experience, 65 percent of company respondents said that they rely on personal data such as name, gender and location. About 45 percent claimed that they utilize user preferences, and 38 percent said they use purchase history.

“Companies need a personalization strategy in place and a clear plan of action if they want to improve the customer experience for everyone – from first-time visitors to loyal customers,” wrote Mark Phibbs, vice president of EMEA Marketing at Adobe, in the report. “A personalization framework should embrace all relevant customer touchpoints and devices, and not one or two channels in isolation. As the research below describes, the right blend between ‘man and machine’ is crucial for achieving this.”

The “Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing: Why Marketing Should Be Personal” report looked at responses from marketers across a wide variety of industries, including one-third of who considered themselves to work in the B2B realm. More than 700 people responded to a survey to compile the data from the report.

Creating a Valuable Connection

Personalization may help marketers cater to their target audiences, but the right type of content can assist with these efforts as well, according to a recent survey conducted by the Economist Group and Peppercomm.

In this survey, 500 B2B global marketing executives were presented with a list of 20 different types of content. They were asked, “In the past 12 months, which of the following forms of content have you found most helpful for a business-related matter?”

At the top of the list were articles with 71 percent of marketers citing them as the most helpful. Research reports came in second place with 51 percent, and white papers were third place with 27 percent.

The same survey showed that 67 percent of respondents believed that timely content with unique information was most successful. About 60 percent said that content that helped them understand complex issues in simple terms was most successful.