Putting B2B Marketing Personalization to the (Field) Test
A Corporate Visions field test reveals how much and what kind of personalization drives results.
RENO, Nev., June, 2019 – You may be expecting too much from your campaign personalization efforts. According to a recent Corporate Visions survey, 58 percent of B2B marketers think that highly personalized messages are most effective for open rates and click-throughs. Yet, only 39 percent achieve this degree of detailed personalization. Meanwhile, 27 percent of marketers are able to consistently personalize campaigns by industry, even though it’s widely regarded as one of the least effective methods.
To accompany this survey, Corporate Visions conducted a field test to test what level and what type of campaign personalization is most effective for three main performance indicators: open rates, click-through rates, and sales meetings scheduled.
The field trial targeted 7,000 prospects who had no prior interaction with Corporate Visions. Each prospect fit the company’s ideal client profile in terms of vertical market, company size, and title. Corporate Visions created 4 test emails, with identical offers and calls to action but different subject lines and openings based on the personalization method. The emails were personalized by industry only, company only, personal + industry, or personal + company.
“The goal of every personalization strategy is to win more business,” says Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer at Corporate Visions. “So, while it’s important to ensure your communications are relevant and engaging, the final measure of success is whether or not they snag new buyers.”
Over the course of one quarter, Corporate Visions tracked the results. The open rate metric showed a clear winner in personal + company content. The emails that combined personal and company information outperformed all other categories, with an average open rate of 26.17 percent. But the industry-only treatment significantly outperformed the other treatments for click-throughs, beating the company-only treatment by 17 percent and the personal + company treatment (which won in open rates) by 24 percent. The industry personalization also won more scheduled meetings compared to company personalization.
When it comes to marketing personalization, more isn’t necessarily better. This field test proves that personalizing by industry is actually more effective for winning your prospect’s attention than a higher-effort, more individual approach.
About Corporate Visions, Inc.
Corporate Visions is a leading marketing, sales and customer success messaging, content, and skills training company. Global B2B companies come to Corporate Visions when they want to:
- Create Value®: Increase pipeline by breaking the status quo, differentiating your solutions and creating more qualified opportunities
- Elevate Value®: Close more deals by building an effective business case that increases urgency and justifies executive decisions
- Capture Value®: Maximize the profitability of each deal by protecting pricing premiums and avoiding unnecessary discounting
- Expand Value®: Keep and grow existing customer revenue by improving retention rates, justifying price increases, and convincing customers to buy more
To view the research in full and get an in-depth analysis of the findings, check out Corporate Visions’ eBook, It’s Not Business… it’s Personal: Putting Personalization to the (Field) Test.