Marketers Just Want to Get
to Know You (with Data)
Data opens up opportunities for personalization,
but also presents challenges
There’s
no denying that consumers are demanding more tailored experiences when
interacting with companies than ever before. Based on recent research,
professionals are collecting data through analytics in an effort to respond
appropriately.
The May
2014 study by Econsultancy in association with Lynchpin
found that, thanks to the rise of data-driven marketing, analytics were
a hot topic among digital business professionals worldwide, many of whom were
using them to improve personalization efforts. In fact, personalization and
targeting were the second most popular requirements for analytics related to
understanding the customer, cited by 53% of respondents. Tracking behavior
across devices and channels, which can aid in personalization further down the
road, ranked first.
Analytics
may help, but based on June 2014 polling by Experian Data Quality, data
issues were still among the main challenges of personalization. While gaining
insight quickly enough was the top hurdle to executing personalization, cited
by 40% of US data management professionals, having enough data ranked a close
second, at 39%. Inaccurate data rounded out the top three challenges.
Those who
can master the art of personalization stand to see improvement across a handful
of processes. Customer prioritization and cross-sell/upsell offers were the top
processes improved by personalization, cited by 69% and 63% of respondents to
the Experian survey, respectively. Relevancy and loyalty offers (58%), brand
integrity (51%) and efficiency in internal routing (49%) also saw enhancements
thanks to personalization efforts.
