Commentary

Segmentation And Personalization Key Strategies For The Holidays

According to a recent Zaius study, considering marketing tactics and strategies for the Holiday Season, retail marketers are overlooking omnichannel, says the report. The study surveyed some of the top ecommerce leaders and practitioners to find out how they’re approaching marketing to a saturated audience.

In order to help make the most of the 2017 Holiday Season, the study results included:

  • The importance of personalization and segmentation
  • The domination of email continues
  • The growing focus on online shopping 
  • A lack of omnichannel strategy

Surveying hundreds of ecommerce practitioners, says the report, and focusing on how they’re approaching holiday marketing this year, of the diverse group of respondents, 49% work for a company with fewer than 49 people, and 33% did more than $15 million in revenue in 2016. In addition, 33% had the title of manager, 24% were director, and 17% were CMO/CEO/Founder.

Of this cross-section of diverse ecommerce leaders, their biggest marketing priorities this 2017 Holiday Season include 33% of marketers saying segmentation is most important, followed closely by 31% of marketers who are focused on personalization this year, then 20% on Optimization, 9% Lifecycle Automation, and 8% Attribution.

The report says that optimization, lifecycle automation, and attribution are less of a focus for B2C marketers this season. While still important, there is a clear consensus that personalization and segmentation can have a huge impact, backed up by outside data as well. According to Accenture, 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, or knows their purchase history

Despite the growth of many new and exciting options for marketing channels, emails remains the #1 choice for ecommerce marketers looking to engage their audiences, says the report. According to the survey, 43% of B2C marketers say email campaigns are the first priority for holiday marketing, beating out all other channels including social, search, and retargeting.

According to the report, investment priority for 2017 holiday marketing are: 

  • Email Campaigns   43% 
  • Social Media Campaigns   22% 
  • Search Ads   15% 
  • Retargeting Ads   12% 
  • Print Ads   4% 
  • Other   3%

Print ads continue to lose favor, moving in sync with the print industry’s ongoing struggle against the internet, says the report. And very few ecommerce marketers have bought into the idea of web push, or mobile push messaging as an effective channel. These cutting-edge technologies are at the bottom of the list, alongside old-fashioned print ads. But, says the report, the last investment priority for 2017 Holiday Marketing shows:

  • Print ads   34% 
  • SMS messages   29% 
  • Browser push campaigns   15%
  • Mobile push messages   9%
  • Retargeting ads   4% 
  • Other   9%

It will be interesting to see whether this focus shifts in the coming years, says the report, as ecommerce buyers get more used to push messaging and respond more favorably to it.

The 2017 Holiday Season outlook is bright, but there are many trends and factors shaping ecommerce marketing this year. The Zaius report believes that the future of marketing will be focused on omnichannel personalization, and the data backs this up.

Cutting-edge ecommerce companies are working hard to achieve their goals of offering buyers a personalized experience across all channels. The report says that 94% of respondents report that implementing a B2C CRM platform made it possible to effectively execute an omnichannel strategy, resulting in higher engagement and increased sales.

The report concludes, however, that there is a huge opportunity to stand out by building a strong omnichannel strategy, focusing on mobile shopping, and exploring new channels outside of email. By doing something different than the majority of retailers, will find your niche.

Mark Gally, CEO of Zaius, concludes, noting that “… this data uncovers the path to help marketers overcome their frustration by leveraging omnichannel, marketing automation and B2C CRM solutions that can put them ahead this holiday season.”

For additional information, please visit the prweb release here.

 

 

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