No consumer wants to feel like a number—unless it’s number one. To make consumers feel like they’re getting more one-on-one attention, marketers are depending on real-time personalization. In fact, 77% of marketers find real-time personalization to be highly important, according to the “Real-Time Marketing Insights Study” by marketing technology provider Neolane and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).
Forty-three percent of marketers surveyed define real-time marketing as “dynamic, personalized content delivered across channels,” with “across channels” being the key words. The study cites that 75% of respondents believe that delivering dynamic, personalized content across channels is highly important. For instance, marketers said that delivering dynamic, personalized content in email (80%), on the Web (69%), on mobile devices (53%), at the call center (49%), at the point of sale (49%), and via social channels (45%) are all highly important.
Although there’s clearly interest in taking a more real-time, personalized approach to marketing across channels, few marketers are acting on it. According to the survey, 49% of marketers are currently planning for real-time cross channel marketing while only 29% are currently doing it. But marketers seem to be more focused when it comes to email: 55% of marketers are currently using real-time personalization in their emails, while only 32% are still in the planning stages.
However, concerns around real-time marketing may be preventing marketers from stepping up their initiatives in that area. For example, marketers cited complexity of systems required (50%), access to real-time data (46%), data privacy issues (45%), and having training in place (39%) as their top anxieties.
Nevertheless, marketers see the benefits that real-time marketing can bring. For example, respondents listed marketing effectiveness and precise targeting (76%); increased customer satisfaction and experience (67%); and increased customer retention (60%) as the top ways real-time marketing solutions could benefit their organization. And these benefits appear to be enough to convince marketers that real-time marketing is the real deal, because 44% of marketers said they’re either deploying or planning to deploy real-time marketing technology.
We know you love infographics. Check out some more Direct Marketing News originals.
