• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 7, 2022

Personalized email is the top CX strategy — at least for advanced brands, according The Future of Personalization in B2C Marketing, a study by Acxiom, sponsored by Sitecore. 

Of the advanced B2C companies polled, 58% say personalized emails are a strategy for offering a more personal customer experience. In contrast, 45% of improvers and 38% of late adopters say the same.  

Advanced firms are also delivering personalized web experiences (57%), sending relevant product recommendations (57%) and offering personalized product discounts (54%).  

What defines advanced companies? The 49% that fit into this category show these traits:  

• First-party data insights are well-established as the core driver of activities—63% say it has been a priority for several years.
• Using customer data and Martech effectively and extensively to inform their marketing efforts

In contrast, improvers (41%) are using first-party data to inform future marketing, but want to do more. And marketing driven by first party data is a recent development. 

Of late adopters (13% of the total), 58% are using first-party data to inform prospecting.  

In general, 59% of U.S. firms say first party data has been a priority for several years, versus 47% overall. And 39% say its importance has increased in the last two years.

That said, here are the main sources used for collecting customer and prospect data:

• CRM data — 65%
• Social media — 63%
• Company Website Analytics — 58%
• Ecommerce transactions — 55%
• Customer reviews — 52%
• Account information (ERP) — 50%
• Third Party Data Sources — 48%
• Website Forms — 39%
• Personal Loyalty Cards — 39%
• Intent Data — 34%
• Website Chat — 25%
• In-store Transactions — 24%
• Store Cards —18%

Their primary marketing challenges include: 

• Developing our marketing technology strategy — 21%
• Identifying the best marketing technology to meet needs — 19% 
• Retaining and growing existing customers — 19%
• Improving the digital customer experience — 18%
• Acquiring new customers — 16% 
• Understanding consumer/in market trends — 16%
• Increasing brand awareness — 16%
• Demonstrating around ROI to support marketing investment — 16% 
• Becoming more data driven in marketing efforts — 15% 
• Building customer engagement — 14% 
• Acquiring more first party (customer) data — 14%
• Supporting on pricing/price optimization — 9% 
• Increasing share of voice (SOV) — 8%

Overall, 83% expect their budgets for technology resources to increase over the next 12 months, and most say these hikes will be up to 10%.  

Acxiom surveyed 400 senior marketing decision makers in the U.S. and Europe in March and April 2022.