Personalisation in Digital Marketing: Is it worth it?

Jordan Barrett May 23, 2025

When the first examples of trade magazines targeted literate, wealthy members of society in the 1400s, it could be argued that personalisation in marketing was born. But in today’s digitally driven world, has personalisation been lost or enhanced? There’s no denying that personalisation in digital marketing is easier to achieve nowadays; the vast majority is automated with the help of technology. However, it could also be argued that personalisation efforts have become less impactful. This begs the question: is personalisation in digital marketing actually worth it?

The Evolution of Personalisation in Digital Marketing

Offering personalisation in business used to require effort. Fifty years ago, a shopkeeper needed to get to know their customers, strike up a conversation and remember to greet them by name. Today, this social interaction has been replaced by automated software, the likes of which can add a recipient’s name to every individual email. 

These advancements in technology have meant that the ease with which personalisation could be achieved has reduced its impact. Quickly, personalisation went from surprising to expected. Tactics like mass emails addressing each recipient by name now largely go unnoticed.

Personalised loyalty programmes became the solution to this. Cafes that started out with ‘collect 10 stamps for a free coffee’ now offer loyalty points, different tier levels and various rewards in order to offer a more personalised experience.

It appears that in terms of both loyalty and personalisation in digital marketing, we’ve reached a stale point once again. There’s very little difference from one loyalty scheme to the next, and the ones that stand out have to go above and beyond to offer unrivalled personalisation.

Benefits of Personalisation in Digital Marketing

Unique Selling Point

Personalisation allows you to differentiate your offering from competitors. Think of something as simple as Starbucks staff writing your name on your cup; it offers a more personalised experience but also offers a different experience to other coffee shops.

While most brands personalise their digital marketing in some way or another, seeing your digital marketing personalisation as a USP should elevate your efforts to a level beyond competitors.  

Higher Conversion Rate

If operating in a lead generation industry, personalising your outreach efforts should lead to a higher conversion rate. While sending mass emails or messages will save you time, it is evident that you haven’t put time into tailoring your approach for each recipient.

On the other hand, if you’re able to mention a shared interest or anything specific to that individual recipient, your marketing efforts should stand out above others.

Increased Revenue

However your brand offers a more personalised experience through marketing, it should lead to a stronger connection with customers, often allowing you to connect with consumers on an emotional level as opposed to just a transactional level.

You should find that these individuals become closer to brand ambassadors than merely customers. They’ll opt for your brand over competitors and will likely be prepared to pay a higher price for your product or service. Overall, this stronger connection should lead to increased sales and revenue.

Cost vs. Value of Personalisation in Digital Marketing

To answer the question, is personalisation in digital marketing worth it?, it’s important to consider the cost and the value. The average cost saving is usually high, both in time and financial senses, and has decreased thanks to technology and automation.

In terms of value, most customers will tell you they either value personalisation or expect it. According to McKinsey, almost three-quarters of consumers expect businesses to deliver personalised experiences. Whether this translates into sales and revenue or not is hard to measure. With personalisation becoming so easy to achieve, it’s become difficult to stand out through personalisation in digital marketing for the simple reason that all your competitors are probably offering it too.

Having said that, this also means a lack of personalisation would stand out a lot more than it would’ve done previously, which is why we see brands continue to strive for more personalised ads and offerings. The ones that do personalisation in digital marketing well will continue to see results, while those that view it as a box-ticking exercise run the risk of blending in.

Digital Marketing Personalisation in 2025

There’s no doubt that successful examples of digital marketing personalisation in 2025 will see brands go beyond “Hi [first name]”. Even tactics like abandoned cart emails, which were once a highly innovative advancement in the email marketing world, must be updated to maintain their freshness and originality.

In terms of current trends, there appears to be a shift from basic automation to behaviour-driven personalisation that relies on combining accurate data with innovative technology. The best examples include Moonpig’s use of notifications to remind customers of upcoming family birthdays, Starbucks using past purchases to recommend new drinks and Sephora’s vastly popular Beauty Insider program, which has been expanded to offer gamified experiences.

Final Thoughts

Personalisation still has a place in digital marketing, but the landscape has most certainly changed. Lazy personalisation efforts have almost certainly lost value and possibly aren’t worth the small investment. On the flip side, the success of loyalty schemes like Starbucks Rewards, where personalisation is placed front and centre, shows just how valuable personalisation can be in digital marketing.

If your brand is struggling to create an emotional connection with consumers, could it be that your organisation is automating instead of personalising? For assistance with digital marketing campaigns, consider contacting our team at Red Cow Media. We have a range of services, including SEO, paid search and social media marketing to get you ranking well on search engine results pages (SERPs), increase website traffic and improve conversions.