Personalization as a Marketing Strategy - How to Get it Right

Today’s marketing strategies need to have a significant amount of targeting and segmentation in order to be effective. Untargeted or generalized content simply doesn’t work anymore - there’s just too much content and not enough time or attention to consume it all. On top of that, consumers are over it: 74% of online customers noted that they get frustrated with websites when the content has nothing to do with their interests.

The Basics: Personalization Facts and Stats

An effective and popular inbound strategy is personalization. Just how well does it work? Here are some interesting facts and statistics:

• Personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%.
• Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.
• Marketers have noted a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns.
• Segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue.

This can take many forms, including:

• Personalization tokens in emails
• Smart CTAs
• Automated marketing campaigns

You can also personalize for a variety of factors. Take a look at the table below - you can personalize any marketing strategy in column A for any of the attributes in column B. The opportunities are limitless and there are many places you can start.

Getting it Right

To get it right, you have to make sure you’re sending the right personalized content to the right person at the right time. This comes down to nailing your buyer persona, meeting them at the right point of their buyer’s journey, and understanding their behavioral data and consumer insights. To do this, you have to make sure that you:

• Properly identify your buyer personas
• Capture the information that you will need. If you’re planning on sending a birthday automation, for example, make sure to ask your customers for this information on landing pages or in emails.
• Integrate across platforms. This helps ensure accuracy and that all of your customer information is completely up-to-date and relevant across channels.

When constructing these personalizations, you’ll want to elicit an emotional response and engage your audience. Think about it - have you ever seen a CTA or received a nurturing email that made you think things like, “I need one of those!” or “That’s interesting.” These kinds of responses are the result of targeting and personalization done right.

Here are a few examples of effective personalized material to get your wheels turning:

Murad: Products for You 

Murad, a popular skincare company, sends an automated email when you visit their site. It thanks you for visiting, encourages you to return, and gives product recommendations and blog material to familiarize you more with the brand. This email works for various reasons. It’s timely, relevant, and inviting without being pushy. The audience is being recognized for their visit and given information that they were already looking for on the site. Because they are in the right stage of the buyer’s journey, they are likely to find it helpful.

These kinds of personalized recommendations also have an impact on retention rates and revenue. If a company shows they know what you need or enjoy, they will build consumer trust and put their brand top-of-mind next time the customer needs to make a purchase.

Fitbit: Personalized Weekly Update 

Health and fitness tracking companies are popular because they personalize. Consumers don’t want to know about health and fitness in general - they want to know about their health and fitness. Fitbit takes this into consideration: not only do they track personal health to a T, they also send weekly progress reports to show users where they are that week, if they’ve improved over time, and how close they are to each of their goals. It’s encouraging and it helps maintain customer engagement both with the app and with everything that Fitbit has to offer.

Spotify: Year In Review 

Not only does Spotify make music recommendations year-round based on what you’ve listened to, but they also give an end-of-the-year wrap up that shows users interesting information about their listening behavior. This includes how much time they spent listening to music, how many unique songs and artists they listened to, their favorite day to listen to music, and more. This is exciting because it provides users with an unexpected look into their own psychology and behavior: they probably don’t remember that one song they loved in February, but Spotify does, and they’re giving you the opportunity to revisit that memory, and by extension, revisit Spotify.

BevMo: Birthday Automation 

Another effective strategy is to celebrate a personal event, such as an engagement, graduation, anniversary, or birthday. Acknowledging big moments in your customers’ lives builds trust and adds a personal feel to your brand communication. This helps build brand loyalty over time. BevMo does this really well with their birthday automated email - using a personalized email token and greeting the customer without trying to push a purchase. This no-strings-attached communication also gets the customer’s guard down. The business isn’t asking for anything, they’re simply extending a friendly greeting on a special day. And it works.

So what would your customers or clients like to see? What will they click on? If you’re not sure, look at your historical data and metrics or conduct an A/B test to get to the bottom of it.