There’s no denying that budgets and resources play a significant role in marketing initiatives. But do marketers with wider wallets have a Monopoly on marketing success? A recent study by retention marketing platform provider Retention Science shows that marketers need more than just money to win.
Personalization is a major token in most marketing strategies. Eighty-one percent of the 139 marketers surveyed personalize their email content to some degree, and 68% personalize some aspect of their websites. When segmented by budget—comparing those with more than $1 million in marketing spend to those with less—the reliance on personalization only slightly changed. According to the data, 31% of marketers with budgets exceeding $1 million don’t personalize their websites. Of the 69% who do, just 21% provide personalized offers, according to the study. Similarly, 33% of marketers with budgets less than $1 million don’t personalize their sites. Of the 67% who do, only 16% customize offers. The gap widens when it comes to email. Sixty-three percent of marketers with budgets greater than $1 million don’t send personalized email offers, according to the study; 76% of marketers with more limited resources also refrain from personalizing emails.
In addition to sharing similar personalization practices, the two segments have comparable testing techniques. According to Retention Science, just slightly more than half of all marketers (58%) test email subject line effectiveness. This proclivity for testing continues to decrease for email content and offers (48%), website landing page design (33%), and website landing page offers (27%). Furthermore, only 20% of marketers optimize the timing of their emails based on customer behaviors and preferences. However, solid testing practices are more effective than leaving it up to chance.
When it comes to tracking performance, some marketers simply roll the dice. Less than one quarter of marketers (23%) track churn rates, according to the study. Tracking shopping cart abandonment is more of a win. Fifty-nine percent of marketers with budgets of more than $1 million track this metric, as do 50% of marketers with less than $1 million. However, there’s a divide when it comes to measuring customer lifetime value. More than 50% of marketers with big money bags don’t track customer lifetime value, according to the study. This figure rises to 77% for those with less than $1 million in their pocket. If marketers want to improve their real estate, they need to measure what’s working and what’s not.
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