• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 19, 2024

It used to be a given that marketers focused on customer acquisition when the economy was doing well.

But different forces are at play this year, judging by the State of Cross-Channel Marketing 2024, a study by Moengage. 

The top three objectives for B2C brands this year are:

• Finding new customers — 57% 
• Increasing customer engagement or loyalty — 44.9%
• Retaining current customers — 40.8%

But the reason is not the economy — rather, it is that “most marketers aren’t able to retain their existing customers properly due to ineffective personalization caused by issues such as data silos, lack of real-time analytics, and improper tooling and methods,” the study says.  

Specifically, B2C brands face these challenges: 

• Budget/resource constraints — 45.4% 
• Delivering personalized experiences — 39.5% 
• Clarity around channel effectiveness — 36.5%
• Executing cross-channel communication — 33.4%
• Data silos — 30.9% 
• Real-time analytics — 27.2%
• Mapping to the customer journey — 26.6% 
• Unactionable data — 23.6% 

Meanwhile, the most widely used B2C channels are: 

• Email — 89.6% 
• Social media — 80.3% 
• Desktop website — 67.1%
• Mobile website — 65%
• Mobile app — 49%
• SMS — 44.6% 
• Direct mail — 34.8% 
• Mobile push — 33.4% 
• Desktop App — 24.9% 
• WhatsApp — 13.5% 
• Desktop push — 13.4%

The numbers are slightly different when it comes to effectiveness: 

• Email — 75.6% 
• Social media — 56.7%
• Website — 41.1% 
• Mobile push — 25.4%
• SMS — 23.3% 
• In-app messaging — 18.7%
• Offline — 12.8% 
• WhatsApp — 9.1% 

How are B2C marketers using personalization? 

• Using age, gender, location, etc., for personalization — 42.7% 
• Customizing communications for different customer journey states — 40.2%
• Personalizing based on previous purchases — 37.8% 
• Tailoring messages based on customer real-time actions  —35.4%
• Utilizing AI for product/content suggestions — 24.4%
• Not currently personalizing — 10.1% 

AI is also taking hold as B2C firms use it for cross-channel marketing:

• Generating and selecting content — 33.2%
• Subject lines and targeting — 32.3%
• Chatbots for customer interaction — 28.4%
• Message customization — 24.4%
• Predicting consumer behaviors — 23.2% 
• Not using AI — 22.8% 
• Pinpointing the optimal message — 19.2% 

Moengage surveyed 730 B2C marketers in December 2023.