Consumers have very high expectations from brands that they will only present the content they like to see. A research was conducted which included 1000 consumers. According to the SaaS platform Braze, more than half (53%) of them said they expect a personalized experience when they come in contact with a brand. The personalized marketing experience will pay the brands considerably, but it requires a lot of time, effort, and money on the marketers’ end.

Marketers Have Witnessed Improvements in Their Results After Personalization

According to the report, most marketers believe they are doing the personalization marketing right; however, customers don’t have the same point of view. Marketers have witnessed a lot of improvements in their results worldwide after implementing more personalization. The stats of the study, as of August 2021, are as follows:

• 54% of marketers said they had noticed the increase in brand engagement after making personalized content for consumers.
• 48% of marketers have responded that they have witnessed increased conversions because of the personalized marketing experience.
• 47% agreed they got better responses for their discount offers after presenting personalized content to their consumers.
• 41% said that the clicks per email have increased.
• 41% said that the open email rates have improved.

The stats clearly show how marketers believe personalization has helped them. In one way or another, it leads to higher revenues and sales.

What Challenges Do Marketers Face While Implementing Personalization?

Here are some other points of personalization that are included in the report, highlighting the challenges or difficulties marketers face while implementing personalization.

Channel Challenges

Since brands use multiple channels to reach their target audience, providing consumers with a personalized experience becomes pretty difficult. The more channels a brand uses, the more complex personalization becomes. Companies are in dire need of tech capabilities to be able to combine data sources and communication channels.

Privacy Concerns and Limitations

Consumers have more privacy concerns now more than ever. It limits their data, making it more challenging for marketers to target them. Moreover, third-party cookies are ending, so accessing the consumers’ data is even more complicated now.

Need for Tools

Nowadays, it is impossible to handle consumer information from different sources and predict their behavior for sales without the help of any tool. So, marketers need reliable and expensive tools to connect with consumers, manage data, and understand analytics properly.

Trust and Transparency

Effective personalization requires marketers to have a customer-centric approach. It is about getting a completely accurate picture of consumers’ needs through transparent means. Thus, it becomes a challenge for marketers as they must acquire information in a way that doesn’t offend or scare the consumers. Consumers’ comfort and trust level should also not be affected by any move of the marketers.

Bad Quality Data

Marketers also need the best quality data to make their personalized marketing work. However, the truth is that almost one-fourth of consumer data is not good enough to use, which means it is outdated, irrelevant, or incorrect. Because of poor data quality and information, marketers target their consumers with the wrong content. It pisses off the consumers, which leads to unsatisfactory experiences.

Organizational Challenges        

Other than the quality and source of data, there are many more factors to consider to make personalization effective. Those critical factors include “People,” that is, “Collaborations” between different departments. If every team within an organization has a different mindset, how can it deliver the best personalized experience to its customers? Thus, all the departments must be on the same page. They must collaborate and communicate every detail with each other. Their goals must also align to understand better what their customers want.

Measurement Challenges   

How would marketers know whether their personalization efforts are working or not? 

It’s another challenge for marketers to measure their performance levels to determine what they should do next. They can’t improve if they don’t know how far they have come. However, it’s not easy to measure their personalization initiatives using the right metrics and effective tracking methods. Moreover, personalization takes a lot of time to reveal its results. So, it is difficult for marketers to measure the effectiveness level of their personalized marketing.

Mapping the Customer Journey    

Modern customers use multiple devices to browse the Internet, search for products, and start shopping. So, marketers need to know where their customers are in their journey to predict their next move. However, it’s pretty challenging to identify which device, channel, or source they will use to make the purchase. If marketers don’t have this knowledge, nothing can help them serve the purpose of creating effective ads and special offers.

Missing Out on New Customers 

Marketers must identify your potential lead if they don’t want to miss out on new customers. However, that is not easy as the data marketers mostly get is defective or misleading. For instance, cookies on consumers’ smartphones might not indicate interest in a specific product. Still, the data on their laptop’s browser might show they are interested in buying the same product. So, it will increase the chances of missing out on new customers.

Justifying Budget 

The budget requirements have also increased with the importance of digital marketing and personalization experiences. It is now a challenge to secure a budget for marketing. Marketers compete with each other globally, so they need to fight to keep their budget and grow it even more. However, it is easier said than done, especially for smaller organizations or brands that don’t have sizable budget plans for their marketing campaigns.