• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 10, 2023

Marketers are far from confident in their ability to deliver personalized experiences, judging by Trends In Marketing Personalization, a new study by Ascend2.  

Of the companies polled, only 22% rate themselves as very successful, or best in class. Another 73% say they are somewhat effective, and 5% acknowledged they are unsuccessful. 

Their biggest challenges have shifted this year.  

For instance, 43% of marketers now cite budget/resources issues — up from 38% in 2022. However, only 37% say managing customer/consumer expectations is a major challenge, versus 39% last year. 

In addition, 31% are challenged by tracking the customer through the entire journey, compared to 28% of marketers in 2022. And 26% now worry about having the required technology to do so -- up from 21% in the previous year.

The benefits of personalization have also changed, with improved customer experience leaping by eight percentage points to 51%. Increased revenue also rose, from 41% to 50%.  

In contrast, increased engagement fell from 43% to 38% and increased brand awareness from 36% to 26%. Sales and marketing alignment has fallen from 22% last year to 14%.

What data do brands use to create personalized experiences? They utilize:

• Customer service history — 46%
• Email activity (opens, clicks, etc.) — 46% 
• Known interests of an individual — 43% 
• Transactional history — 37% 
• Location — 36% 
• Social media activity — 36%
• Website activity — 32% 

Despite that, only 25% strongly agree that they have all the data they need to improve their marketing personalization, while 49% somewhat concur. But 25% disagree, and 5% strongly disagree. 

Twenty-nine percent strongly agree that their marketing tech stack allows them to provide effective personalized experiences, while 60% are in the somewhat camp. And 21% disagree, 5% strongly. 

Email has gained as the most effective channel for personalization — 65% now say so, compared to 62% in 2022. 

Websites are second, with 52% citing them, versus 54% last year. Landing pages have fallen from 29% to 15%. Organic social jumped from 9% to 17%. 

Ascend2 surveyed 355 marketing decision makers. Of these, 28% are in B2B, 47% in B2C and 25% B2B and B2C equally. Of the companies polled, 64% have fewer than 50 employees, while 22% have 50 to 500 employees and 14% have more than 500. 

The 2022 results are drawn from a survey of 364 marketers conducted earlier last year.