Personalisation is still in its infancy in B2B, largely because the data isn’t there to support it. But Alex Blyth says there are still opportunities
There is no shortage of examples to suggest that personalising B2B marketing messages produces results. Matt Hall, MD of Profunnel, describes how his client, Leaseplan, started using personalised emails and saw its click-through-rates rise from under five per cent to 25 per cent. “The more personalisation, the better the outcome,” he says.
There is also a host of technologies that promise to make personalisation possible. None of this is new. So, why then is personalisation in B2B still stuck in its infancy? Graham Sharp, strategic planning director at marketing agency Information Arts, puts it more frankly, “Generally, the B2B sector’s use of personalisation is appalling, especially when compared to B2C.”
The problem is, B2B marketers still lack the data needed for meaningful personalisation, and for every bright-eyed advocate of personalisation you can find a buyer who agrees with Roberto Acuna, designer at Creativitea Design Studio, who says, “I’ve always had a real disdain for personalisation, as I’ve always been aware that I’m being watched and analysed.”
When it comes to personalisation therefore – where opportunities, challenges and risks exist in equal measure – it is vital to begin with a clear understanding of what can be done, why it should be done, and the first steps to take in getting it right.
Implicit versus explicit data
“Personalisation can generally take two forms,” explains Eoin Rodgers, senior account manager at marketing services agency DirectionGroup. “It is based on either explicit or implicit data. The former refers to known facts about a contact, such as name, company name, vertical sector, previous purchases, contract renewal dates, and so on.”
He continues, “Implicit data is amassed based on behaviour. For example, abandoned baskets, website visits and interactions, responses to a certain email or downloads of specific pieces of content. From these behaviours we can infer that the prospect has a certain interest, or is at a certain purchasing stage, and on that basis make decisions about the marketing efforts or indeed marketing message we expose that target to.”
Rodgers believes there is compelling evidence it works. “We recently ran a campaign across EMEA for business telecomms provider Avaya. We used dynamic content to deliver personalised messages to distinct audience segments and this more than doubled its benchmark email click-through-rate. We also personalised direct mail pieces that drove recipients to personalised URLs. In some countries, 35 per cent of recipients visited their sites.”
There are plenty of others in the industry who agree. Sharp is only critical of the lack of personalisation efforts from B2B marketers because he has seen how effectively it can work if done well. “We worked with Shell on its EuroShell fuel payment card scheme, and by analysing its customer marketing database we discovered that when customers reduced consumption by five per cent for three consecutive months, they were most likely to lapse or leave the EuroShell scheme. This allowed us to devise a specific retention programme to re-engage these customers.”
Automating emails
Mention personalisation to most marketers and they will assume you are thinking of emails. As the marketing automation platforms from the likes of Silverpop, Eloqua and Neolane become more widely-used, more marketers are discovering the degree of email personalisation they permit.
Richard Evans, director of EMEA marketing at Silverpop, explains it is possible to personalise by location, account information, prior response or non-response, language, previous download behaviour, purchase history, product usage, support usage, survey responses, social sharing, and even offline interactions such as phone calls.
There is much within the email that can be personalised. Evans says, “The most basic form is personalisation of salutations, either in the subject line or more commonly in the body of the email. You can also personalise the signature of emails to give the appearance of it coming directly from the outbox of a particular sales representative.”
You can also make the imagery, copy, and overall message directly relevant to that recipient. The problem is that reality often lies some way beyond these exciting possibilities. Firstly, you need the relevant data, then you need a mechanism to query that data, and finally you need an email tool that supports dynamic content logic. The likes of Silverpop can help with the last two, but not the first. Without data, personalisation is a non-starter.
Kara Trivunovic, senior director of strategic services at StrongMail, concludes, “Very little personalisation is done in B2B communications today beyond the inclusion of a sales rep’s photo or contact information. While some are advancing – most are not. The biggest challenge for the B2B marketer today is getting that data, it being accurate and the recipient being a qualified prospect. If that is not the case, no level of personalisation is going to convert.”
Personalising print and online
There is also much that can be done to personalise print. “We specialise in digital printing and variable data that allows our customers to personalise everything by just supplying the data on a spreadsheet,” says Tammy Butler, marketing manager at Prime Group. “In our experience doing this can increase response rates by as much as 30 per cent.”
She adds, “Your easiest and cheapest way to produce these results is to use a digital printer that already has the software and knows how to seamlessly produce what you are looking for. Our variable data software works with our high tech HP Digital Presses and our image personalisation is called DirectSmile.
Many of these personalised direct mail pieces drive prospects to personalised website landing pages. Brian Woodcock, MD at marketing agency Taurus Solutions, says, “Most of our campaigns lead the recipient to a personalised webpage with their company name, their name and full address details. There are often calls-to-actions with a relevant offer or piece of information. The take-up of these is very good.”
Others point out that it is often possible to personalise content based on the visitor’s online journey before reaching your site. “Even on a first visit you will probably know what users are searching for, their location, the company they work for and if it is their first visit,” says Malcolm Duckett, CEO at digital marketing agency Magiq.
He adds, “For returning individuals, looking at their history of interactions with the site will provide a richer dataset. We’ve seen examples where the simplest level of personalisation has increased conversion rates by 15 per cent or more.”
Finally, there is the personalisation of online ads. Chris Evans, MD of UK operations at online marketing solutions provider IgnitionOne, comments, “Our Live Marketer technology enables marketers to understand what a customer’s true interest is, and where they are in the buying process by tracking and analysing their behaviour on a website. Re-targeting online display ads with content that relates to the customer’s interest can work 29 times better than straightforward display.”
Yet all stress that personalisation is entirely dependent on data. If you are not tracking a customer’s online journey, recording their visits to you or collecting and maintaining accurate and up-to-date information about their name, job, company, location, and so on, this kind of personalisation remains impossible.
Beware alienation
Even if you are one of those precious few organisations with a sufficiently robust data management process to enable personalisation, you should still be careful. Beware of the enthusiasts who tell you there are no limits to what you should personalise. “The limit is privacy,” warns Marcel Holsheimer, VP of marketing for Unica. “A customer will ‘turn off’ if they feel they are being watched or monitored.
Acuna, who is one such customer, explains why he dislikes personalisation so much, “It’s tantamount to having a stranger rummage through your fridge to know what fast food menus to shove through your letterbox. You’re still getting the junk mail, you’ve just had your privacy violated to do so.”
The future of personalisation
The evangelists for personalisation talk about the potential for it in mobile and social media marketing; others argue the importance of cross-channel strategies.
“A cross-channel strategy is key,” says Justin Bowser, head of online business at marketing software firm HTK Horizon. It should span inbound and outbound communications across a variety of channels including email, web, SMS, social and voice.”
It is indeed the case that mobile and social lend themselves perfectly to personalisation, and that cross-channel strategies are the future. The leading consumer marketers are beginning to prove this. However, for now, most B2B marketers have enough work to do developing effective data processes and carefully walking the tightrope of privacy.
Global electronics manufacturer Hager began personalising its email back in 2004, and the organisation reports that since then it as gained $42m from doing so. Its web marketing manager, Manuel Lengenfelder, concludes with this advice on how to get started down that path, “Begin with knowledge about your customer. Take what you have and run a small pilot. Discover what more you need to know about your customer and gradually grow it. Then, test, test, test and test some more.”
