Most Marketers Seen Ending Personalization Efforts By 2025. And Recruiters?

Talent acquisition specialists continue to say marketing is a growing component of their work. If that’s true, it’s worth considering new research from Gartner that predicts efforts to personalize marketing campaigns are on borrowed time.

By 2025, 80 percent of marketers who’ve already invested in personalization will wind down their efforts, the researcher said. The reasons: lack of ROI and the risks inherent in customer data management. Some 27 percent said data itself is the primary obstacle to personalization. Garter suggests that reveals weaknesses in data collection, integration and protection.

The “quest” for personalization “has failed to meet marketers’ ambitions and, in some cases, has backfired as consumers both directly and indirectly reject brands’ overtures,” said Charles Golvin, senior director analyst at Gartner for Marketers. “Consumers have developed an increasingly jaundiced eye toward marketers’ efforts to embrace them.”

Also contributing to the wariness over personalization are a continuing decline in consumer trust, increased regulatory activity and the tracking barriers being erected by technology companies.

Golvin said the increasing number of emails and smartphone notifications consumers receive can push many of them to ignore “even the most carefully personalized and contextualized message.” The basic practices of testing approaches and studying the results have thus become even more important to researching and implementing personalization technology and tactics.

Gartner suggests running proof of concept efforts before investing in new technology. That includes testing tailored recommendations at the segment level. Also, companies should focus on strategic planning, use-case development and consent management as they move personalization from being a “tactic” to a “capability.”

Candidate Personalization?

For several years, talent acquisition professionals have said recruiting is becoming more of a marketing effort, with recruiters paying more attention to engagement, relationship building and matching for culture as well as needed skills.

A report from HR.com’s Research Institute said HR departments in general will have to act more like marketers if their recruitment marketing and TA efforts are going to succeed. Ninety percent of HR professionals said recruitment marketing will become more important to their organization over the next several years. To keep up, HR.com said, TA and HR teams need to improve their skills in marketing, social media, technology and networking.

AdAge warns against relying too heavily on third-party data in personalization efforts. Regulatory and legal issues aside (we’re looking at you, EU), such information tends to be dirty because it’s compiled from a variety of sources that are unrelated and unreliable. It suggests collecting “zero-party” data by connecting with consumers—or, in our case, candidates—directly to collect the data and permissions necessary for personalization.

Sign up for our newsletter here.

Image: iStock