Consumers are tired of being treated like a number. They place a high value on being acknowledged as a real, living, breathing person. (Crazy, right?) But think about it for a second. Think about the last time someone you’d previously met forgot your name. It's one of the all-time worst feelings, and for a reason; it’s as if they forgot who you were... as if you weren’t memorable enough. 

As marketers, we’re doing this to potential customers all the time. With every send-all email or generic landing page, we’re failing to acknowledge our buyers' individuality. So how can you show a potential buyer you’re paying attention to them? Talk to them, directly. Show them you understand what’s important to them. And base it all on data. As technology progresses, doing so is becoming easier and, potentially, cooler. 

To get a better idea of both marketers’ and consumers' thoughts, we compiled a list of statistics that uncover just how important personalization in digital marketing really is. 

This is what we found:

Brands leveraging personalization in digital marketing are experiencing increased pipeline and revenue

1. Companies that have invested heavily in online personalization will outsell companies that have not by more than 30%. (source)

2. 52% of consumers are somewhat likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t make an effort to personalize their communications to them. (source)

3. 80% of consumers indicated they are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences. (source)

4. In a study of 130 businesses, 79% of organizations that exceeded revenue goals have a documented personalization strategy, with 83% having a dedicated budget for said strategy. (source)

• Want to see how marketers are leveraging personalization across the buyer journey? Check out The Big Book of Personalized Marketing Examples.  

The modern buyer engages with personalized content far more than standard messages

5. Customers who perceive a business’ content to be tailored to their needs are 40% more willing to buy from that business than those who don’t personalize. (source)

6. 72% of consumers say they now only engage with marketing messages that are personalized and tailored to their interests. (source) 

7. Personalized recommendations increase by 60% the chances of a visitor consuming more content than generic recommendations. (source)

8. When asked what actions they usually take when a company sends them emails that they find irrelevant and annoying, 48% of surveyed consumers said they “unsubscribe” and 14% said they “stop doing business” with that brand. (source)

Marketers understand the value and potential of personalized content yet they still struggle to integrate it into their campaigns

9. When asked to prioritize one capability that will be most important to marketing in the future, 33% of marketers answered personalization. (source) 

10. 78% of marketers with ineffective content identified the ability to personalize their content as their most desired area in which to improve. (source)

11. Content personalization is a priority for 70% of B2B marketing leaders, but over 50% of these individuals believe their efforts to personalize content have been ineffective. (source)

12. The biggest challenges with implementing a personalization-based strategy are gaining insights quickly enough (40%), having enough data (39%), and inaccurate data (38%). (source)

Personalization is beginning to integrate itself into a wide array of demand strategies

13. 73% of B2B marketers said they currently use or plan to use web personalization tools to personalize the customer experience. (source) 

14. Close to half (47%) of B2B marketers are practicing personalization within their nurture strategies. (source) 

15. 44% of B2B marketers currently use, or plan to use, video tools to personalize the customer experience. (source) 

16. More than a third (35%) of B2B marketers are creating personalized, custom content for individual accounts. (source) 

Hyper-personalization is a challenge but the companies executing this at scale are reaping the rewards

17. Only about 6% of B2B marketing influencers have completed the development of a hyper-personalization strategy. (source)

18. About two-thirds (65%) of B2B marketers are either just talking about it or haven’t done anything about hyper-personalization yet. (source)

19. According to 62% of B2B marketers, improving the customer experience is the top priority for hyper-personalization strategies. (source)

20. An application that is more effective than difficult to deploy (such as user experience) is more likely to be included in a hyper-personalization strategy than an app that is more difficult than it is effective (open-question chatbots, for example). (source)

21. 86% of marketing professionals consider the effectiveness of an AI-powered hyper-personalization strategy to be changing for the better. (source)

22. While 58% of B2B marketing influencers surveyed consider developing a hyper-personalization strategy somewhat successful, nearly one-third (31%) consider it a very successful way to achieve top priorities. (source)

Predictive AI Could Unleash the True Power of Personalization 

23. 82% of marketing leaders say improving customer experience is the leading factor in their decision to adopt AI. (source) 

24. Over half (58%) of marketers in the B2B channel name predictive analytics as the most effective AI-powered application used in a hyper-personalization strategy. (source) 

25. 44% of CMOs say that, within five years, frontline employees will rely on insights from advanced analytics to provide a personalized offering. (source) 

26. One in three marketers (33%) rely on machine-learning personalization (algorithms and predictive analytics) to dynamically present customers with recommendations. Among those that don’t, 32% plan to implement this by 2020. (source) 

27. Content personalization (57%) and predictive analytics from customer insights (56%) are the two areas on which CMOs most prioritize their AI spend currently. (source) 

28. Top-performing companies are more than twice as likely to be using AI for marketing (28% vs. 12%). (source)

Personalizing content for target accounts is still a challenge for marketers focused on account-based marketing 

29. Channels that are seen to have higher effectiveness (personalized content versus difficult search engines and mobile ads), are more likely to be part of a successful ABM strategy. (source)

30. Personalized content (64%), delivered to the right targets, at the right time, through segmented email (61%) represents the most effective digital channels used for engaging ABM accounts. (source)

31. Personalized content (41%) is considered one of the most difficult channels for B2B marketers to execute on to engage ABM targeted prospects and customers. (source)

32. 38% of B2B marketers said personalization at scale towards target accounts was their biggest challenge. (source)

Final thoughts

Did we really used to live in a world where marketers thought “the broader the message, the broader the appeal?” Pitching your value prop to as many people as possible used to be the benchmark. In today’s world, this strategy only results in brand dilution and low conversion. 

Your audience values acknowledgment, and personalization is the golden key marketers can insert into their box of campaigns to provide audiences with the individual attention they crave. After all, personalization is what today’s buyers have come to expect. And if we don’t give it to them, we’ll lose out to someone who will.  

Personalization is crucial for making an authentic and lasting connection. Want to see how marketers are incorporating personalization into their strategies? Check out The Big Book of Personalized Marketing Examples.