We like to talk a lot about the importance of personalization in marketing because we’ve seen its power over and over again. Especially for Super Senders, consumer expectations are so high that finding new ways to personalize the way you market your products is an absolute necessity, not a nice to have.
But we get it — talking about it is one thing, and proving it with objective data is quite another. You should be thinking about the ROI on the changes you’d have to make to your strategy and martech stack in order to reach the level of personalization consumers expect. If your decision makers are skeptical about whether it’s worth it to truly invest in data organization and tools that will help you maximize that investment, a new study from McKinsey & Company has the solid backing you need to convince them.
Customers expect brands to demonstrate they know them personally
There are so many ways that customers today expect for brands to show an understanding of where they’re coming from. Some of that stems from the fact that customers know they’ve been giving up their data for years now. And they also have seen big brands deliver on the promise that came with entrusting that data. If you’re a Super Sender, there are no excuses left not to deliver as well.
Look at the above chart. That’s nearly a dozen different ways at least 40% of customers expect to be catered to in a personally relevant manner. Overall, 72% said they “expect the businesses they buy from to recognize them as individuals and know their interests.” It can all sound daunting. But the good news from the above chart is, none of that is remotely out of reach or unrealistic. Savvy brands are already doing all of these, every single day. But you have to commit to a data-led marketing strategy to make it happen.
Digitally native companies drive more revenue from personalization
Digitally Native brands are often the Disruptors, the companies that were born into the digital age and to whom a data-first approach comes naturally. They embrace the value of first-party data, then build their team and martech stack around ensuring they’re taking full advantage of the data they’ve put in so much work to collect.
And you can see here that they reap what they sow. That sort of investment in data and then putting it at the center of everything you do drives a tremendous amount of revenue: a full 25% of their total. Because of their approach to marketing, they’ve established a close and trusted relationship with their customers, enhancing loyalty and long-term customer value. When a company shows they understand you and make your buying experience both enjoyable and easy, you’ll keep coming back to them when you need something they provide.
Companies that drive more revenue from personalization have better outcomes
As you break these numbers down above, they look even better for the digitally native businesses that invest in effectively utilizing their customer data. It really does cut across all aspects of revenue creation: when personalization gets better and more strategic, you can see its benefits more fully and clearly.
Whether it’s prompting repurchases, upward customer migration, or loyalty revenue, the digitally native brands saw better customer outcomes than brands that hadn’t centered their marketing strategy around data and personalization. These are the sorts of brands that are disrupting their industries and raising the bar for what consumers expect for everyone else. There’s no time like the present to start thinking about how your brand can make up ground in these areas.
There’s so much more in this McKinsey & Company report, including how personalization impacts consumers’ willingness to recommend your brand to others. Read the whole thing to get lots of valuable insights that can help you and your team to better understand the importance of data to your marketing strategy.
If you’d like to talk about how MessageGears can help you take those steps forward, we’d love to have a conversation. Our customer engagement platform was created specifically to solve this problem for Super Senders, and we’re ready to get started whenever you are.
Jeff Haws
As MessageGears’ Senior Marketing Manager, Jeff is focused on producing engaging and thoughtful content that resonates with enterprise marketers, helping them to better understand how MessageGears makes their jobs easier. He’s passionate about understanding the way data impacts messaging, and he’s also hopelessly obsessed with baseball.
