SoDA, in partnership with Sitecore, has released its SoDA Report on Global Trends in Personalization. The report highlights challenges and opportunities for global business leaders in digital experience personalization. The report also examines the strategies and tools required to produce the most effective consumer experience. The report finds that 83 percent of marketing leaders and C-level executives increased their investments in personalization for 2019.
When deployed effectively, personalization enhances customers’ lives and increases engagement and loyalty by delivering messages that align with, and even anticipate, what customers really want. However, while marketing leaders and C-level executives clearly recognize the importance of personalization, the majority appear to overestimate their current capabilities.
When it comes to digital experience personalization, 67 percent of global leaders rate their organizations as “Masters” or “Experts” with robust and advanced levels of personalization capabilities. However, while rating themselves highly in terms of organizational maturity, less than 40 percent are currently utilizing even the most basic targeting criteria for personalization.
“There’s no doubt that digital experience personalization is a growing priority for marketing leaders and C-level executives across the globe,” says Tom Beck, Executive Director at SoDA. “While our data shows increased spending to improve capabilities, the majority of organizations still point to constrained budgets, limitations with their technology platform, and challenges with their data as some of the biggest barriers hindering their progress. It’s also worth noting that more than half of all organizations lack an adequate strategic roadmap and investment plan for their personalization capabilities.”
Paige O’Neill, Chief Marketing Officer at Sitecore, adds, “There’s nothing scarier for me as a marketer than the idea that personalization budgets are increasing, but marketers are overestimating their current capabilities and underestimating what it takes to truly master personalization. Despite the fact that over a third of marketers see digital experience as a major competitive advantage, most are struggling to leverage crucial personalization techniques, from basic targeting to AI capabilities. Without building a solid internal architecture and tapping external resources like Sitecore’s leading platform, opportunities and return on the investments will be lost.”
Notably, the SoDA report also found that the focus on personalization is universal. The importance of digital experience personalization and plans for increased investments varied little across geographic regions, leadership roles, and size of digital budget, indicating that personalization is a consistent, global priority. Clearly, personalization is a technique that all marketers need to master.