Data-Driven Personalization: What It Is and Why You Need to Use It in Your 2020 Marketing

Data-driven personalization continues to grow in effectiveness for marketing departments. Let’s dive into what it is and why it’s important for your 2020 digital marketing strategy.

What is data-driven personalization? 

Data-driven personalization is when you know enough about someone to deliver content to them at just the right moment. At its core, personalization is delivering value to someone at just the right moment. Gone are the days of random blasts and generalization. Today, you must be specific, personal and strategic with your marketing efforts.

That is why data-driven personalization is a big deal for marketers in 2020. 

It is such a big deal that my team at Ascend2 conducted the “Data-Driven Personalization Survey” to gather data on how marketers are using data-driven personalization to enhance their digital marketing strategy. 251 marketing professionals participated in the survey. To review all of the data, you can download the Data-Driven Personalization Survey Summary Report. 

Here are key findings from the report and a few tips on data-driven personalization to plan your 2020 digital marketing strategy.

Deliver a Better Experience to Customers with Data-Driven Personalization

Delivering a better experience to customers is a top goal for a data-driven personalization strategy to achieve for nearly two-thirds (64%) of marketing professionals surveyed. Increasing visitor engagement and increasing conversion rates are also primary objectives according to 44% and 43% of those surveyed, respectively.

So how do you improve customer experience? 

1. Know Your Customer. To know your customer, you need to collect as much data as possible and have a streamlined process to use that data. You must remove your data silos and have data unification. Take the time to fix your data issues and unlock a wealth of insight into your customer.
2. Let Your Customers Help Themselves (Self-Service).  Hand over control to your customers, and you will have happy customers. User preferences, FAQ on your website, self-service lines, and options on how to be contacted are a few examples of how you can put the customer in control of their experience with your brand. 
3. Engage Your Customers on Social Media. Take advantage of any opportunity to engage with your customers. Make sure to have a process in place to track and respond to your customers, and in return you will build loyalty and develop a better understanding of what is important to your customers. 
4. Develop a Customer-Centric Culture. Strive to have your entire company customer-centric. From leadership to frontline employees, build a culture that puts the needs of the customer above the needs of the company. 

Take a Deep Dive into Your Data and Tackle Your Data Issues — It Is Critical to Your Success with Data-Driven Personalization

When it comes to the success of a data-driven personalization strategy, improving the customer experience and increasing visitor engagement top the list of challenges for 44% and 42% of marketers, respectively. 

Improving the quality of data used is also a critical challenge, according to 41% of those surveyed. Data quality is a common challenge for all types of marketing tactics: email, content, search, social, lead generation, etc. When is the last time you took a deep dive into your data? Do you have data silos? Are you collecting and using the data from your website to improve the customer experience? Don’t be afraid to tackle your data issues, as it is critical to your success.

Determine Whether You Are Collecting the Right Data

Today, the type of data collected for marketing use goes far beyond the traditional name, company, and title. Over half (55%) of marketing professionals say that website activity is the most important type of marketing data utilized for personalization efforts. Transaction activity is also at the top of the list of important types of data to 47% of those marketers surveyed. 

Have you done an assessment of your data and answered the questions?

• What marketing data are you collecting? 
• What data are you not collecting? 

The final two findings are helpful as you make a case to your leadership team to allocate budget and resources for personalization.

Data-Driven Personalization is Effective — Now Is a Good Time to Leverage It

Data-driven personalization is working! One quarter (25%) of marketing professionals surveyed report that the effectiveness of a data-driven personalization strategy increasing substantially, while 67% say it is increasing marginally.

Marketers Are Allocating More of Their Budget to Data-Driven Personalization

It is becoming apparent that marketers see value in dedicating time, resources, and expenses to personalization in their marketing efforts. The majority of those surveyed (86%) will be devoting more of their total budget to incorporating data-driven personalization into their overall strategy. Nearly one-in-five (18%) describe this increase as significant. 

When faced with a difficult decision, I always look for research that can help guide my decision on my digital marketing strategy, marketing plans, and marketing budget. Research is helpful when I need to sell my plan to the management team, and make an adjustment to my current strategy.  

Get more research insights by downloading the entire study, Data-Driven Personalization Survey Summary Report.