More than three-quarters (77%) of marketers are personalizing their email marketing, which, joined by websites (52%), are the only channels in which a majority use personalization. That’s according to the 2018 Trends in Personalization report [PDF] from Evergage and Researchscape International, which surveyed 300 marketers on their personalization efforts.
The results align with last year’s study – in which email and websites were again the only channels with widespread use of personalization – and with separate research from Econsultancy and RedEye, which also find personalization efforts mainly used for email, with a slight majority also personalizing websites.
Not surprisingly, then, email content (71%) is the area where the most marketers are personalizing experiences, followed by home pages (45%) and landing pages (37%), per this latest report.
Given personalization’s strong role in email marketing, it’s instructive to see how marketers are putting these efforts to use. As it turns out, personalization initiatives remain relatively basic for the time being.
The most common form of email campaign personalization is first name and/or company name in the message or subject line (76%). While this is the most basic use of email personalization, it has been found effective in generating above-average response rates.
The research shows, however, that marketers are yet to move to individualized campaigns. For example, respondents are twice as likely to tailor their messages or promotions by audience segment (52%) than by individual (25%). Likewise, they’re twice as apt to be found personalizing their product or content recommendations by audience segment (51%) than by individual (25%).
This may be an area where machine learning can help: virtually all (96%) marketers are confident that machine learning can personalize email content down to an individual’s specific interests and improve the customer experience, according to a recent survey. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.com.
The e-Strategy Academy covers all aspects of digital marketing including search optimization & marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, video marketing, mobile marketing & public relations.