True ‘relevance’ lies in the content and context of a marketing message, not in the mere strategic placement of a recipient’s name or other customer data in a marketing solicitation.
Bruce Biegel, Senior Managing Director, Winterberry Group

Consumers’ postal and e-mail boxes are stuffed with marketing messages. But how do recipients decide what merits attention—and what gets tossed in the trash? Do “one-to-one” marketing efforts really cut through the clutter? And how are leading-edge marketers putting new personalization tools to work to bolster their response?

A growing cadre of marketers are embracing advanced customer data and analytics tactics for event-triggered marketing campaigns—but many still struggle to provide more than a one-dimensional level of personalization to help differentiate their efforts. Analyzing the breadth of direct communications sent to consumers, their findings further show that:

- 44 percent of marketers are introducing an element of personalization into every e-mail campaign they send, but fewer than 10 percent personalize more than the salutation.
- 66 percent of direct mail is personalized, representing little change over the past three years.
- 71 percent of consumers read direct mail from retailers—more than any other vertical market.
- 21 percent of direct mail responders visited a corresponding Web site within 30 days of mail receipt, up from 14 percent in 2003.

“True ‘relevance’ lies in the content and context of a marketing message, not in the mere strategic placement of a recipient’s name or other customer data in a marketing solicitation,” says Bruce Biegel, senior managing director of Winterberry Group and moderator of the panel discussion. “If marketers expect results, they must tailor relevant messages by utilizing data and analytics programs that react to geo-, demo- and psychographic information to enhance behavioral targeting and measurement.”