There are few points within the business-to-business customer journey that cannot be improved with personalized content, according to sales solution provider Seismic and marketing research and advisory firm Demand Metric. Their survey of more than 180 B2B company executives found content brings numerous sales goals closer in reach.

The survey revealed that for most respondents (70 percent), lead generation is the most cited objective for B2B content marketing initiatives, and sales team support and enablement (64 percent) is the second-most cited objective. Thought leadership efforts (58 percent) and web traffic generation (56 percent) follow. Furthermore, 80 percent also indicate that these objectives are better met when content is personalized.

“The conclusion of the report is unmistakable: content personalization throughout the customer journey—from first-touch to close—is imperative,” says Doug Winter, CEO of Seismic. “Much like how marketing automation disrupted the marketing landscape about a decade ago, marketers today that can execute a holistic and efficient content personalization process before their competitors do will be in a much better position to win more deals and close more sales.”

While the value of personalized content is widely understood, the Seismic/Demand Metric study found that many B2B marketers remain in the beginning stages of a content personalization process. They report that 55 percent of respondents have only been personalizing content for two years or less, and that 67 percent of respondents are performing content personalization via an entirely manual or mostly manual process. Of those not currently personalizing content, 59 percent cite a lack of technology, 59 percent a lack of bandwidth and 53 percent a lack of data. However, 67 percent of respondents say that their organization plans on increasing the use of personalization over the next 12 months.

“This new report shows that the race towards content personalization is on,” says Jerry Rackley, chief analyst at Demand Metric. “Eighty percent of respondents find personalized content more effective, and when one also considers that more than half of those polled are considering implementing or are using content personalization tools, those who are not may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the very near future.”

Click here to download Seismic/Demand Metric’s report, “Content Marketing’s Evolution: The Age of Hyper-Personalization and Automation.”