The era of “batch and blast” email marketing is waning, according to the Email Marketing Personalisation Report, a new research report by UK email consultancy Holistic Email Marketing in partnership with marketing-technology provider Pure360.
Among the findings, the report shows that 72 per cent of brands are using data to personalise the messages they send to their customers and subscribers. The report also studies the number and kinds of data they use and the challenges that prevent email teams, even those with 20+ members, from expanding personalisation.
Email Personalisation: No Longer A ‘Nice To Have’
“Now that automation and data tools are standard offerings on even mid-level email platforms, we wanted to learn how marketers are using them to personalise and enhance their messaging,” says Kath Pay, Founder and CEO of Holistic Email Marketing and author of the report.
“Some marketers have mastered the art and science of personalisation, using advanced data collection to personalise every aspect of the email journey,” Pay says. “Others are testing the waters using basic segmentation on key aspects of their messages. But we were surprised to find marketers who said the ROI isn’t there yet for them.”
“It’s encouraging to see personalisation is a top priority for nearly 50 per cent of respondents with another 35 per cent looking to implement soon,” says Komal Helyer, Marketing Director for Pure360. “As consumers we’ve been long exposed to personalisation from brands such as Amazon, Netflix and Spotify. These brands realised the power of personalisation early on and were quick to develop their experience around it.”
Top Five Findings In The Report
1. Personalisation is becoming the norm for most marketers. Only 18 per cent of marketers said they aren’t actively personalising – some just haven’t gotten started while a small percentage choose not to use it.
2. Nearly all marketers have the tools for personalisation. Six percent of marketers said they can do no personalisation using their email platforms. Almost half (49 per cent) have access to tools for basic personalisation, while 36 per cent are using advanced tactics such as dynamic content. Another eight per cent are leading the way with AI, machine learning and other technology.
3. Many email marketers don’t own the web forms they need to succeed with personalisation. Although 72 per cent of marketers get most of their data from web forms, 24 per cent said the web team wholly owns those forms. That means this 24 per cent can’t control the design and placement of those forms or access the data easily to integrate it into their email programmes.
4. Marketers are moving beyond personalising only the subject line or first name. Marketers are incorporating data from email behaviour (56 per cent), purchase history (41 per cent), lifecycle stage (29 per cent) and even contextual data (12 per cent) to add relevant content meaningful to individual recipients.
5. Marketers who test their personalisation efforts rely more on campaign metrics than customer metrics. Conversions, opens and clicks are the top three metrics marketers use to measure the effectiveness of their personalisation efforts. Fewer use potentially more meaningful metrics, such as customer lifetime value or average order value, which measure performance on business goals.
How The Email Marketing Personalisation Was Compiled
In June 2018, the research team surveyed 203 email marketers across multiple sectors, team sizes and countries. UK marketers made up 51 per cent of respondents, followed by U.S. marketers (31 per cent), marketers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (17 per cent), Latin America (one per cent) and Asia-Pacific (less than one per cent).
Access your own copy of the report by visiting the download link here.
About Holistic Email Marketing: We are an email marketing consultancy who focus on your customers’ journey. The customer, their journey and the information they provide through their actions, is at the centre of our ethos. Enabling you to benefit from email marketing strategies and email marketing programmes that achieve the 1:1 personalisation your customers desire. holisticemailmarketing.com