INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than three quarters of digital marketers report personalization impacts customer retention and loyalty metrics, according to a new commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud from salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM).
The study, “Refresh Your Approach to 1:1 Marketing,” found that marketers see value in marketing personalization and predictive intelligence – 86% report they use personalization and targeting based on broad segmentation and simple clustering and 84% report personalization impacts customer retention and loyalty. However, marketers face challenges in personalizing each customer interaction (48%), meeting expectations of the always-connected customer (42%) and analyzing the constant flow of customer interaction data (42%). As a result, there are four key predictive and data analytic tools where marketers said they plan to increase investment to overcome these challenges.
- 58 percent of marketers plan to increase spending in site optimization tools
- 52 percent plan to increase spending in real-time interaction management
- 51 percent plan to increase spending in predictive algorithms
- 51 percent plan to increase spending in guided selling
“The ability to deliver personalized customer experiences and contextual, unique offers is essential to retaining and converting customers to brand advocates,” reads the study. “But the expectations of empowered, connected consumers make this easier said than done. They have instantaneous access to information across multiple devices and want to interact with brands on their terms — across channels and whenever they want.”
"The future of marketing is the customer journey. Today’s hyper-connected consumer requires companies to create personalized experiences and deliver value at each touch point to increase brand loyalty and drive sales," said Woodson Martin, CMO, ExactTarget Marketing Cloud. “Marketers need to be empowered to use data to drive these 1:1 journeys and experiences with their customers.”
In this study, marketers will discover the massive role personalization plays in the customer journey, and receive insight on how to:
- Tie personalization back to top marketing goals
- Make personalization a priority, turning browsers into buyers
- Collect real-time data to build out personalized 1:1 profiles
- Leverage technology to automate decision-making
To download “Refresh Your Approach to 1:1 Marketing”, click here.
Personalization and Predictive Intelligence will be a key topic at Connections, the conference for digital marketers. Marketers from around the world will attend the three-day event, which takes place September 23-25, 2014, and features keynotes from salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, entrepreneur, musician and philanthropist will.i.am, GE SVP & CMO Beth Comstock and DonorsChoose.org CEO Charles Best.
Additional resources:
- For more information on “Refresh Your Approach to 1:1 Marketing,” read a post on the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud blog.
- Join Eric Tobias, Vice President, Predictive Intelligence and Data Analytics Products, ExactTarget Marketing Cloud and guest speaker Srividya (Sri) Sridharan, Research Director, Forrester Research, Inc., for a webinar on personalization and real-time 1:1 marketing, on August 28, 2014 at 12:00pm-1:00pm EST.
- Watch the Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud demo video.
- Like Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud on Facebook.
- Follow @salesforce, @exacttarget and @marketingcloud on Twitter.
About ExactTarget Marketing Cloud
The ExactTarget Marketing Cloud from salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) is the leading 1:1 digital marketing platform, connecting companies with customers in entirely new ways. Learn more at www.ExactTarget.com.
The ExactTarget and Salesforce names and logos are the exclusive property of salesforce.com.