Climb the Personalization Maturity Ladder

See how global businesses prioritize personalization as the key to delivering superior customer experiences.

Customer experience management is the new battleground – with industries of all shapes and sizes now attempting to meet the unique needs of the individuals they serve through a more personalized approach. Faced with scaling operations in order to achieve meaningful business results, organizations are reassessing the current order of things internally.

To better understand the state of personalization maturity, every year, we generate and analyze the responses from our personalization maturity self-assessment test. This marks the second consecutive year reporting on the results of our findings.

How we evaluated personalization maturity

We surveyed marketers and executives across the globe to learn about their organization's current technology stack, organizational structure and internal commitment to personalization. Respondents were representative across demographic profiles and industries.

The survey explored four stages of personalization maturity: absent, basic, advanced, pioneer, based on an organization’s ability to unify data, dedicate resources to drive personalization, visionary outlook, and more.

The Lowdown

  • Absent Definition: Personalization is not yet present across digital properties. This could be because the organization was not sure what was possible technologically or never made personalization a core priority.
  • Basic Definition: Organizations that deploy basic levels of personalization, usually channel-specific and with limited segmentation capabilities.
  • Advanced Definition: Organizations that have already established some processes and testing roadmaps to inform their personalization efforts.
  • Pioneer Definition: Organizations that have already overcome many challenges that come with adopting a customer-first approach through personalization.
User-Centricity The organization is able to personalize customer experiences based on a single view of the customer.
Impact The organization can share personalization success stories and prove its potential impact on business growth.
Processes A centralized team drives personalization and translates strategies into impactful deployments.
Resources The organization invests in creating processes and designating owners to personalization.
Leadership Personalization is prioritized as a company-wide strategic initiative.
Technology Personalization technology is deeply integrated within the tech stack, using all available consumer data.
Culture The organization sees the value in delivering superior, individualized customer experiences.
Data Data-driven decision-making is effective and leveraged from data collected across all customer channels.
Region

96% of marketers now believe there's value in personalization.

Up 4% from 92% in our 2018 study, a larger portion of marketers and executives shared recognizing the importance and benefits of an individualized approach to the larger business strategy.

But more individuals (36%) confessed to being unable to effectively personalize the customer experience.

46% copped to deploying only basic on-site personalization with limited segmentation and 36% claiming to treat users the same across all channels. Only 5% of companies reported having attained a single view of the customer to orchestrate personalization across channels.

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What’s missing is the proper team and structure to support personalization programs.

At 38%, most companies come up with processes on the fly to serve in-the-moment personalization needs. Not trailing far behind, 33% don’t even have an executive sponsor within the org to drive initiatives.

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A time for self-reflection

Across the globe, we found the belief in personalization has continued to grow while also witnessing a decline in confidence when it comes to the ability to effectively personalize experiences.

Being such a complex field with lots of moving parts and various potential applications that transcend marketing channels, companies are beginning to realize the road to deep personalization is a marathon, not a sprint.

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Who Participated?

Geographies

AMER 23.9%
APAC 42.0%
EMEA 34.1%

Industries

eCommerce /
Retail 32.1%
Finance /
Banking 12.3%
Media /
Publishing 12.7%
Gaming /
Betting 2.6%
Technology /
Software 32.1%
Travel /
Hospitality 8.1%

Annual Revenue

Under
$10m 23%
$10m to
$50m 18.7%
$250m to
$500m 15.7%
$50m to
$250m 23.3%
$500m+ 19.3%

Company Size

1-50
Employees 14.7%
51-200
Employees 22.1%
201-500
Employees 17.9%
501-1000
Employees 18.7%
1,001+
Employees 26.6%

Discover Your Company’s Personalization Maturity Level

Answer eight questions to find out your company’s digital maturity.

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