The martech industry is always evolving, especially with landmark changes such as stricter privacy protocols and the plummeting reliability of third-party data. More than ever, marketers want to cut through the noise and focus on truly effective strategies.
This can leave marketers wondering if personalisation is truly a necessity worth prioritising.
When marketers don’t see the lift they expect, it’s easy to see personalisation as just another marketing buzzword instead of a core strategy. But marketers must note that not only is personalisation effective, it’s a necessity.
It’s not personalisation that needs to be rethought—it’s the way it’s put into practice. Because just like any strategy, there’s a right way and wrong way to do it.
Why Marketers Think Personalisation Is a Buzzword
When marketers have hesitations surrounding personalisation, it often boils down to three challenges:
Personalisation is too invasive, especially when customers value data privacy more than ever.
Virtually everyone has received a message where the brand knows a little too much about you. Currently, nearly 50% of customers are expressing concern that their data is being sold or stolen by others parties.
But the solution to assuaging privacy concerns doesn’t lie in scrapping personalisation all together; the path forward is in a clear value exchange. Brands that gather data while staying transparent with customers on how it's used will deliver the best of both worlds: safe data and better marketing communications.
My brand relies on communications reaching all of our customers.
Whether it’s discounts or store events, there are some messages that brands want in every customer’s inbox. Luckily, traditional digital marketing and personalisation initiatives are not mutually exclusive and the two can co-exist, giving customers the perfect blend of messaging.
We’ve checked personalisation off the list through our segmentation.
While segmentation is a crucial step in the right direction, tailored messaging that drives long-term results requires more nuance.
The majority of brands have implemented segmentation, most commonly in three groups. For messaging that stands out in the sea of marketing communications, brands need to go beyond basic demographics and activate their customer data.
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Watch Now.Why Personalisation Is a Necessity
Personalisation isn’t a buzzword. It’s crucial and incredibly powerful when used correctly. Here’s why:
Customers demand personalisation.
While customers understand data and are rightly more protective over it than ever, they still want personalised marketing experiences. When 72% of customers say personalisation is highly important to them, marketers can’t afford to give up on tailored communications.
Personalisation grows trust and loyalty.
When customers feel like they’re valued by a brand and their data is treated with care, loyalty follows. Nearly 70% of customers are likely to be loyal and make repeat purchases when they feel like the brand is proactively building relationships with them.
Brands can’t build lasting relationships through mass email sends alone; they must include 1:1 messaging that communicates to each customer on an individual level.
Personalisation is a long-term solution.
Personalisation is a powerful tool, but brands will never see its full potential if they only use it for an occasional campaign.
With the right data-driven messaging, brands can build a holistic view of their customer, generating increasingly accurate and relevant campaigns that boost ROI like nothing else. Take this personalised email by Inkredible Gaming:
Using first-party data from customers’ recent browsing activity, Inkredible Gaming can hand-pick which new releases are best suited to their gaming habits. To drive retention and up the gaming fun, the brand suggests which community groups are the perfect fit.
In the second half of the email, first-party data is again activated to display a high-interest item that captured customer attention during their last browse on the site. To finish it off, Inkredible Gaming uses zero-party data to create a CTA for the customer to take the next step in the loyalty tier.
Conclusion
Personalisation isn’t dead, it’s just under-utilized. But with the right data-driven techniques powering customer-centric campaigns, the full power of personalisation is waiting to be unlocked. Want to learn how to make the most of personalisation? Learn the details in our upcoming webinar: Personalisation isn’t a Buzzword, It’s a Necessity.