4 ways personalization can power your marketing efforts

Personalizing offerings and messaging presents an incredible opportunity for brand managers to more effectively engage with consumers.

Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of internet users say they’re frustrated with websites that aren’t tailored to their needs, 72 percent of consumers say they don’t like generic marketing messages, and 58 percent say they’d like organizations to better focus their discounts.

Despite the demand, most brand managers don’t think their personalization efforts are resonating. A recent survey of marketers revealed that 60 percent of marketers struggle with the tactic.

The root cause is that many brand managers fail to deliver the personalized experiences that people truly want.

To overcome this challenge, an MDG Advertising infographic highlights approaches that can improve your targeting strategies.

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Here are a few insights:

Smart vs. dumb tactics. Personalization means much more than simply including a name.

Basic personalization has minimal effect on engagement, but messages based on specific user actions have a double the open rate and triple the click rate compared with standard emails.

Single consumer view. Consumers say the top benefits of personalization are fewer irrelevant ads and messages, quicker discovery of new products and services, and better shopping interactions. To deliver these experiences and harness the power of targeting, you must have rich and frequently updated consumer profiles.

Information is power. Personalization and data aren’t just linked, they’re fundamentally intertwined.

Fifty-nine percent of marketers who say they don’t personalize content identify technology as their major barrier, and 53 percent say they lack the right data.

Be transparent. People remain wary of personalization because they aren’t sure how data are used and stored, which is why control and security are so important.

Sixty percent of internet users want to know how a website selects content personalized for them, and 88 percent prefer to determine how their personal data will be used.

You can check out more insights in the infographic below:

Michael Del Gigante is the president and creative director of marketing and communications agency MDG Advertising. A version of this article originally appeared on the agency’s blog.

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