Personalization Continues to Provide Uplift in Conversion Rates for Online and Offline Channels

October 30, 2017

In-house marketers continue to see the most bang for their personalization buck in the area of search engine marketing, but those implementing personalization in offline channels are reporting more success this year. That’s according to the latest annual Conversion Rate Optimization Report [download page] from Econsultancy and RedEye.

Some 39% of company marketers report a major uplift in search engine marketing conversion rates as a result of implementing personalization. While that’s down from last year’s 46%, the proportion experience an uplift of some degree increased marginally to 93%.

The biggest improvement in personalization’s perceived impact this year, though, is for offline channels. While only 15% of company respondents report personalizing their offline channels, fully 37% of those report a major uplift in conversion rates as a result of doing so. That’s more than 3 times the share (11%) from last year’s report.

Anecdotally, respondents shared that they’re personalizing experiences by joining up online and offline in ways such as: syncing direct mail with relevant social and email activity; offering items to upsell in-store based on click-and-collect orders; and using in-store loyalty cards to provide insights to digital communications such as email and SMS.

Personalization Efforts Mainly Limited to Email, Websites

Overall, some 62% of company marketers surveyed report undertaking some form of personalization in their marketing activity, down from 66% last year.

Email (90%) is by far the most common area of personalization for these marketers, though a majority (53%) this year are also personalizing their websites. That aligns with separate research from Evergage, in which email and websites were the only channels in which a majority of marketers reported using personalization. Previous data had found that while email personalization is considered effective, website personalization is far more difficult to execute.

This year’s report from Econsultancy and RedEye does show an uptick in the use of personalization in a couple of areas. Indeed, more than one-quarter of company marketers now say they personalize social media and search engine marketing (each at 27%), up from 17% and 18%, respectively.

The report separately found that more marketers are conducting paid search testing to improve conversion rates – suggesting that search is becoming more of a priority in personalization and conversion rate optimization.

Marketers Paying More Attention to Personalizing Website Journeys

In terms of websites, landing pages (62%) and home pages (61%) are the most likely to be personalized by marketers, much as they were last year.

This year shows a big increase in the use of personalization for customer journeys: 40% are personalizing specific journeys (up from 31% last year); and 33% are personalizing the post-purchase journey (up from 20% last year).

The full report is available for download here [download page].

About the Data: The results are based on a survey of more than 800 respondents, two-thirds of whom work for client-side organizations and the remaining third on the supply side (vendors, agencies or consultants). Some 76% of client-side respondents are based in the UK (60%) or Europe (non-UK; 16%), and 64% come from companies with at least £10 million in annual revenues.

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