• by Ray Schultz , August 5, 2019

Most brands are doing a good job of linking their data and personalization strategies, according to Data Driven Personalization, a study released on Monday by Ascend2. 

Of the marketers polled, 56% feel they are somewhat good at this task and 40% say they’re very good at it, or best in class. Only 4% rate themselves as unsuccessful. 

In addition, 86% plan to devote more of their total budget to incorporate data-driven personalization into their overall strategy. And 18% plan significant increases, while only 13% foresee decreases.

Email is the leading personalization medium, used by 51%. And 46% personalize marketing content.

Another 40% personalize their website home pages, while 32% personalize their search engine marketing, 31% personalize their campaign landing pages and 28% personalize their blog/social media posts. Last on the list are product/pricing detail pages, personalized by 18%. 

But companies face challenges in implementing their data-personalization strategies, including: 

• Improving customer experience — 44%
• Increasing visitor engagement — 42%
• Improving quality of data used — 41%
• Increasing conversion rate — 32%
• Improving product offer & pricing — 26%
• Improving lead program — 28%
• Improving brand preference — 23%

Those challenges fit closely with the primary objectives of data-driven personalization strategy:

• Improving customer experience — 64% 
• Increasing visitor engagement — 44%
• Increasing conversion rates — 43%
• Improving product offer & pricing — 26%
• Improving quality of data used — 26% 
• Improving lead program — 25%
• Improving brand preference — 23% 

Here are the types of marketing data they use for personalization:

• Website activity — 55% 
• Transaction activity — 47%
• Campaign activity — 37% 
• Gender/age/location — 32% 
• Name — 26% 
• Company/employment — 24%
• Title/purchasing role — 19% 

Meanwhile, 25% say their effectiveness is increasing substantially and 67% say it is increasing marginally. A mere 9% feel it is decreasing. 

Of the sample, 59% use a combination of in-house and outside resources, while 30% use in-house resources only and 32% use outside resources only.

Ascend2 and its Research Partners surveyed 251 marketing influencers.