Originally posted on June 5, 2018 by WRAL.

Although 70 percent of millennials say they are frustrated by receiving irrelevant emails, most brands still mostly send mass communications. And, while marketers spend to drive online traffic first, mobile second and physical locations last, more than half of consumers still do most of their shopping in-store, according to a new survey.

The survey, “Marketers on a Mission: The State of B2C marketing,” asked hundreds of digital marketers what tactics they use and where they are spending their budgets. The survey was conducted by SmarterHQ, Cheetah Digital, Liveclicker, and MailCharts.

“While personalization has been a buzzword with marketers for years, it’s clear that brands have yet to master tailored messaging,” said Michael Osborne, CEO of SmarterHQ. “In a world where brands like Amazon, Apple, Google and Walmart execute everything customer related so well, marketers should strive to continuously deliver better individual experiences.”

Better use of customer data is key to improving personalization, said Justin Foster, vice president of market development for Liveclicker.

Among the survey findings:

• • The travel and hospitality, higher education, and financial services industries invest in content marketing 63 percent more than others.
• • The retail industry is investing in personalization tools more than any other industry.
• • Travel & hospitality reports the highest shift toward tailored messaging, with 63 percent of their communications aimed at individual customers vs. mass marketing.

According to the survey, the top four priorities of today’s digital marketers are:

Creating a more personalized customer experiences (51 percent said this was their top-ranked opportunity).

Increasing budgets to invest more in multichannel: marketers reported investing 26 percent more in multichannel technologies.

Sending more behavioral-based messages: marketers plan on sending 30 percent more behavioral emails. But there may be a disconnect with millennials, who prefer to receive 1-3 marketing emails a month.

Implementing strategies to compete with Amazon: 95 percent of retail marketers said Amazon has significantly affected their marketing plans.