A survey of more than 100 companies conducted at the Web 2.0 Expo by EPiServer, the world's fastest growing provider of platforms that drive online engagement, reveals that 34 percent, more than one-third, of the respondents said that personalized campaigns have delivered "highly effective and measurable ROI," and 14 percent has seen "better response rate than mass-market" delivery methods such as print/TV/newspaper advertising and outdoor/billboards. Nearly half of those surveyed said that their companies currently use up to 40 percent of their marketing budgets on personalized communications, with that number expected to increase in the next 6-12 months.While digital and data-driven channels provide the greatest upside for personalized communications in customer acquisition and relationship marketing programs, the survey respondents, representing more than 100 organizations in various markets and of different sizes, said unequivocally that inadequate software applications and poor data limits the potential of such campaigns. Of those surveyed 45 percent said that their company's personalized campaigns would be "better with more relevant data." More than 60 percent of the respondents rated currently available personalization software as either "satisfactory," "poor," or "very poor." A key challenge is integration, a single view of the customer data across multiple digital channels.
"The survey clearly shows that marketers are ready to move to more digital and personalized marketing. Forget about TV, radio, and newspaper advertising, even digital channels are not being personalized, and, to date, technology has been a key inhibitor to greater adoption," said Bob Egner, Vice President of Global Marketing at EPiServer. "Of those surveyed 64 percent, nearly two-third of the respondents said that they currently do not offer personalized content on the company Website. As technologists, we have to ask ourselves, 'why not?' EPiServer's goal is to offer integrated applications for greater personalization, allowing marketers to manage content, create communities, understand customer behavior and sell across multiple digital channels."
The survey was conducted at the 2011 Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, California among CEOs, Vice Presidents, Directors and Marketing Managers at more than 100 attending organizations including large corporations, small and medium-sized business and marketing and digital agencies.
The EPiServer survey asked the following four questions and received the following response:
How would you generally categorize the ROI of your personalized communications campaigns?
Do you offer personalized content on your company Websites?
How would you rate the quality of the personalization software/applications currently available?
Do you have plans to further personalize your marketing communications in the next 6-12 months?
The EPiServer platform, combining content, commerce, communication and community is available now.
For more information:
Bob Egner
VP of Global Marketing
e-mail: 
About EPiServer
EPiServer connects ecommerce and digital marketing to help business create unique customer experiences which generates business results. EPiServer's platform combines content, e-commerce and multi-channel marketing capabilities to work full-circle for businesses online, from intelligent optimization, lead-generation through to conversion and repeat business.
Sitting at the centre of the digital marketing ecosystem, EPiServer empowers online and IT professionals to create superior customer experience for more than 20,000 websites worldwide. Built on .net, and supported by a pioneering partner network of over 630 partners in over 30 countries, EPiServers platform gives customers the ability to deliver the right content to the right person in the right format at a time that suits them. This approach means customers can maximize their investment in digital marketing and increase ROI. The company was founded in 1994 and has offices in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, Spain, UAE and the United Kingdom. EPiServer is controlled by the IK2007 Fund. IK Investment Partners is a European private equity firm with Nordic roots, managing €5.7 billion in fund commitments.