Report: Only 33% of B2B Marketers Believe their Business Excels in Personalization

Although B2B marketers are excelling in terms of providing an optimal customer experience, new research shows that there is still room for improvement in regards to the content they are delivering and personalization efforts.

ON24 recently published its report, “Experiences Everywhere: What Top-Performing B2B Marketers Do Differently,” and statistics showed that most B2B marketers (44%) believe their company is “excellent” in terms of providing a unique customer experience. However, just 33% said the same about their business’ personalization efforts, while only 31% deemed the interactivity of their content as “excellent.”

Last year, the majority of top-performing B2B marketers (54%) said their marketing program was successful at meeting its annual goals. However, just 46% of mainstream B2B marketers said the same, highlighting room for improvement.

Marketing and the Importance of First-Party Data

To enhance personalization efforts, previous research suggests that marketers may want to focus on the use of data and analytics. Specifically, shifting toward the utilization of first-party data may become critical in the near future.

Merkle conducted its “Customer Engagement Report” for the second quarter of 2020, and data suggested that according to most marketers (41%), it is now the use of both first- and third-party data that is driving personalization efforts. However, the authors of the report believe first-party data could become more important later down the line.

“With the crumbling of the third-party cookie soon to impact how marketers personalize experiences across devices, it’s important that marketers continue to aggressively capture first-party data while also establishing a solid identity resolution capability,” wrote the researchers in the report. “Identity is the core differentiator marketers need to deliver the total customer experience”