A study conducted by US-based marketing platform Mailchimp and marketing consultancy firm Edelman analyses the latest trends in how marketers approach personalization and whether it aligns with customers’ behavior.
More than 1,500 consumers and 700 e-commerce professionals participated in the US and UK survey.
Personalizing marketing
“Personalization is at the heart of being customer-obsessed. It allows you to show your customer how your business, your services, and your goods can satisfy the customer’s need,” says Mailchimp’s Malinda Sandman. She has more than 15 years of experience in the field. Sandman built Carter’s e-commerce platform from the ground up but now leads the teams responsible for transforming Mailchimp’s global website.
Matthew Dernoga is a senior vice president at Edelman, and he says the study focuses on the relationship between brands and their customers. “The holiday season is sort of this make-or-break moment for many marketers and businesses.”
Key findings of the study
Two-thirds of marketers who took part in the survey say that the holidays alone drive between 21% and 40% of their annual revenue. “Sort of the flip side of this bad news is that with all of this opportunity, you’ve got a lot of folks that are going after the same thing at the same time,” adds Dernoga.
In context, in 2022, more than 8 billion marketing e-mails were sent via Mailchimp between Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday alone. That means 400,000 brands marketed on MailChimp during this holiday season and Black Friday.
“It’s quite a lot. And all these businesses are going after those same dollars around the holiday. It’s really important that you’re able to cut through the clutter and break through the noise,” says Dernoga.
What customers want
Sending marketing emails in bulk to as many people as possible might seem like a good idea, but research now proves it’s better to take a more focused approach.
The study found that customers are 87% more likely to open a marketing email if it’s personalized to the specific individual. At the same time, 71% of customers are more likely to follow through and purchase from a company that also sends them personalized emails.
That doesn’t necessarily mean addressing the receiver by the name, but a specific need a customer wants to solve.
Overwhelmed marketers
“We know that marketers have a ton of things on their plate,” says Sandman. She says the study found that nearly three out of four marketers feel overwhelmed by all the different personalization capabilities that are out there. The same percentage also feels they don’t have time to explore all these capabilities.
Email marketing reigns supreme
The study found that email marketing is still the number one successful platform to reach customers, although many might think it would be social media.
“We found that nine in 10 marketers say email marketing is extremely important. It’s the preferred channel for three out of four customers who say they prefer that over any other form of communication,” says Dernoga.
About the author
Mia is a multi-award-winning journalist. She has more than 14 years of experience in mainstream media. She's covered many historic moments that happened in Africa and internationally. She has a strong focus on human interest stories, to bring her readers and viewers closer to the topics at hand.
