• by Ray Schultz , December 10, 2018

Hyper-personalization may be the hottest new buzzword. But only 9% of marketers have completed a strategy for dealing with it, according to Hyper-Personalization Strategies, a study by Ascend2.

Email ranks sixth as the most effective AI-powered hyper-personalization strategy, with 25% saying it works. In contrast, predictive analytics hits the top slot, with 56% and 46% citing the user experience as effective.

However, only 22% rank email as one of the most difficult AI applications. Content creation/curation is seen as tough by 51%, and predictive analytics is seen as challenging by 48%.

So what is hyper-personalization?

"Hyper-personalization takes personalized marketing a step further by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time data to deliver more relevant content, product, and service information to each user," the study says. 

The top priorities?

• Improving the customer experience — 60%
• Applying data insights to decisions — 51%
• Understanding customers better — 41%
• Improving all content performance — 37%
• Gaining a competitive advantage — 32%
• Using more artificial advantage — 29%
• Attributing revenue to marketing — 26%

Their most challenging barriers?

• Applying data insights to decisions — 53%
• Using more artificial intelligence — 40%
• Attributing revenue to marketing — 38%
• Understanding customers better — 35%
• Improving the customer experience — 34%
• Improving all content performance — 33%
• Gaining a competitive advantage — 22%

Of the 143 influencers surveyed, 50% say they are somewhat successful at achieving their goals with their hyper-personalization strategy, and 36% feel they are very much so. And 14% admit they are not successful.

Only 20% rely totally on in-house resources to pursue hyper-personalization, versus 55% who combine outsourced and-in-house resources.