How Personalization in Digital Marketing Impacts Your Business 

Personalization appears to be one of the hottest phrases in marketing right now. Only a few people, though, know how to do it effectively. It’s understandable, given the amount of ambiguity around this topic.

 

What is Personalization in Digital Marketing?

Personalization is the process of determining your customers’ and prospective customers’ needs, preferences, and interests in order to provide them according to what they’re searching for and when they’re looking for it.

Personalization, when correctly implemented through relevant communication channels, can help you better engage customers, provide an excellent customer experience, boost customer retention and loyalty, and increase sales.

Boston Consulting Group predicts that by 2022, $800 billion in revenue is likely to shift to 15% of companies that invest rightly in personalization. In light of these, here are some great tips on how technology can be used to make your personalization goals a reality.

1. Smart Content

 

 

Smart content which can also known as adaptive or dynamic content is a type of content that can be tailored to meet every user’s behaviour or interest. You can think of it as content that’s customized specifically for the user who’s viewing it. Creating smart content can make your brand  stand out because it is personalized and tailored to each user.

A great tool you can use to create smart content for your audience by using their demographics, location, referral source, device type, and language as criteria is HubSpot.  It does this by using cookies, which are stored in the browser of a visitor.

 

 

HubSpot can assess a prospective customer’s device type to find out information about them when they first visit your website . This may include:

• Their name
• Age
• Where they live
• Language
• Email address
• Interactions with your social media accounts
• Items they’ve bought from you before
• Previous offers they’ve used
• Other websites they’ve visited
• Previous activity on your site.
• Any other useful information.

 

And if they meet any of your smart guidelines, they will be shown content that is relevant to them. HubSpot uses their saved cookies to extract information and present relevant content based on smart rules you put up earlier when they visit your site later. These features are currently accessible to HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise and Professional customers. You’ll be able to create smart forms, CTAs, or rich text modules in emails, website or landing pages.

 

But smart content can also so much more sophisticated than just customizing content into various ways. For instance, you cam separate your website’s visitors into several targeted groups and tailor your contnet  to each group. Not only will it be more individualized, but it will also be more likely to convert.

 

With smart content, the personalization possibilities are endless. To cater to diverse user groups, you may do something as simple as adjusting your CTAs or headlines slightly. With varied images and colors, you can alter the visual presentation of your content. Alternatively, you may show new users completely different content than returning users.

 

Also, personalized content outperforms generic content.  According to a Marketo report, personalized email messages are 26 percent more likely to be opened than non-personalized emails, and 78 percent of customers say they are hesitant to engage with brand promotions if they are not suited to their prior interactions.

 

A blend of static, dynamic, and conversational  is the best type of online content you can build. However,  see smart content as a means of adding to and supplementing your user’s experience, not the all-in-one solution.

 

2. Personalized Videos

 

 

A personalized video is any video material that is tailored to each of your target audiences, whether they are prospects, customers, or influencers. The popularity of video is steadily increasing every day among users of all age groups today. People spend on average 6 hours and 48 minutes each week watching videos online. What’s more? The average amount of time spent by people watching videos has witnessed a 59% increase since 2016.

 

The major reason why people tend to watch videos is as a result of its highly interactive nature in comparison with other media forms. Personalized videos can be the best form of interactive marketing in actual fact, given that messages communicated via videos are retained better.

 

It’s not a surprise, therefore, that 68% of people opt for video format when it comes to learning about a new business, product or service over text, presentations, infographics and ebooks.Hence you can utilize this highly engaging form of media to achieve personalization goals for your brand or business. Each time you send a personalized video to your customers or prospects, it gives them a special feeling and more often than not encourages them to share online to create a viral campaign.

 

You can make use of Vintom to create personalized videos for your audience utilizing personalized voice-overs, dynamic images and data, geolocalization, and a lot more.

3. AI Chatbots

Chatbots are automated programs, which are designed to reside on applications such as Facebook Messenger, WeChat, WhatsApp, or on web pages that gives your visitors instant to access useful information or support. AI-driven chatbots are great at engaging your leads and can help in providing them with a highly personalized experience.

 

For example, one of the most intuitive chatbots in Singapore can be seen on the website of Hmlet, a co-living firm. It is specially designed to help users find a new home very easily. It starts the chat experience by first asking a few questions to understand the user’s preferences and interests. It then goes on to assist you in finding the information you’re looking for.

 

 

Chatbot example

The Hmlet chatbot starts the chat experience by asking a few questions to grasp the user’s preferences and interests. It then assists you to find the information you’re looking for.

 

4. Personalization In Search 

 

 

Do you want to feel like the company “knows” you when you need to find or buy something online? Or does the search engine suggest thoughtful predictions of things you want and like when you enter in a search query? According to Instapage, 74% of customers find it frustrating when content has not been personalized for them.  However, thanks to personalized search, you won’t be overwhelmed by the problem of “too many choices.”

 

Of course, AI-driven personalisation encompasses more than just personalized search results. It also includes the practice of noting people’s interests and preferences as they browse websites and content, and then using that information to assist them navigate and discover what they’re looking for.

 

Personalized website (and app) content creation is pretty much all the rage. Users desire to locate everything in one location, and the majority prefer to choose from more relevant options, thus service providers must adapt. Users are increasingly turning to global services (such as Google, Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify) to find nearly anything. Their incredibly advanced personalisation fueled by machine learning algorithms is one of the most potent tools driving their global domination. 

 

The secret sauce of efficient tailored search is machine learning. A search engine algorithm learns about specific users by observing and noting their behavior over time, based on parameters set. Gathering user data is the first stage in implementing search personalization, which is divided into two phases: selecting which behavior to follow and then capturing that behavior. The next step is to develop a personalization relevance strategy, which is then simulated and evaluated before being implemented.  You can use tools like Algolia to structure search personalization and engage users at a deeper level. For expert help creating a personalization strategy that’s tailored to your customers’ unique online needs, contact us here today.

 

Here are Examples of Industries Keeping Up With Personalized Search

eCommerce: 

On an eCommerce website, personalization can take various forms, from offering the most relevant search results to providing on-target recommendations to simply remembering customers’ names and saving their item color and size preferences for the next time they log on. Advanced search and browse scenarios such as dynamic faceting, content carousels, autocomplete drop-downs, are ways you can explore personalized search for eCommerce.

 

Here are a few marketplace sites that have realized the value and profitability of personalization:

• Amazon.com creates a broad online “department store” look with merchandised content carousels, highlighting categories including popular bargains, holiday decor, sporting goods, and last-minute deals.
• Because most visitors to the Houzz marketplace website are unaware of all the buying and content-finding alternatives available to them, the search bar prompts them with options. 
• If you’ve ever purchased on Etsy, you’ll know how successful the site has been in using personalisation to re-engage customers every time they enter the website.  Etsy serves up product recommendations based on people’s recent searching, browsing, and purchasing behavior.

 

Media Sites 

Personalization on media sites and apps provides users with content that represents what they’re most likely to want to watch, listen to, or read on their preferred device. Personalized recommendations and other tools can keep news and entertainment junkies coming back to see what else is available on whatever device they prefer.

 

SaaS Companies:

Companies that provide software-as-a-service (SaaS) can use personalization in a unique way by giving their customer-support and business teams instant access to the material they’ve accessed and engaged with the most, as well as information tailored to their responsibilities (for example, a tech support rep vs. a salesperson).

 

5. Exit Intent Pop-Ups

It may come as a surprise that only 1% of your first-time website visitors will actually make a purchase. The rest are simply searching for information regarding your products or services or their prices and will exit as soon as they’ve found it.

Now just imagine if you could capture some of these leads? Here’s where a personalized exit intent pop-up comes to the rescue. These pop-ups would appear on the screen of a user whenever they make an attempt to exit your site. Studies have also shown that 35% of lost visitors can be re-engaged using these pop-ups.

Exit intent popup example

OptinMonster is a solution that helps you create exit-intent pop-ups easily and capture some of the traffic on your website.

OptinMonster is a good example of a marketing automation tool that can help you create exit intent pop-ups easily which you can use in capturing some of the traffic on your website. As soon as the user tries to hit the ‘X’ button on their browser, you can display a pop-up that occupies most of their screen (this is to grab their attention). For example, in the pop-up below, it takes over your entire screen whenever you attempt to leave Neil Patel’s website.

 

 

 

6. Personalization in Retargeting: 

 

 

When combined with personalisation, retargeting efforts provide amazing prospects.The technique of sending tailored advertisements to users who have already interacted with your website in some way is known as retargeting. Someone, for example, who has read one of your blog articles, visited your price page,  added a product in their shopping cart, but never completed the transaction.

 

You can send each of these people a tailored message with dynamic adverts for the same product they looked at previously on your site. Or show them adverts for additional products once they’ve made a purchase. For example, Nike’s remarketing ad lets you scroll through several pairs of sneakers “suggested for me” based on your previous activity on the website. And it also included a call-to-action (CTA) button to direct you back to Nike’s site to finish shopping. 

 

 

You can use the Google Display Network for retargeting which allows you to show ads — like this one from Nike — to visitors as they browse more than 2 million websites. If you’re new to remarketing, start with simple display ads with clean images, text, and CTA buttons that direct consumers back to your site to make a purchase.

Need help creating your first remarketing ad campaign?

How to Make Your Personalization Goal a Reality

While personalization might be the rave of the moment, you must not try to fly before you can walk, especially if you’re new to the game. You need to ensure certain things are in place before embarking on this journey.

 

Are Your Customers Ready?

The very first step in this direction would be to know your customers well enough. Are they satisfied with your services? Would they like you to improve on any aspect of your business? The answers to these questions can be a great starting point in understanding whether or not they are ripe for personalization. You can make use of tools like Qualaroo or SurveyAnyPlace to float such surveys and gather insights.

Consider the Benefits and Costs

Another thing you need to do is to think strategically consider what problems personalization can help to resolve. Personalization is going to require a lot of data collection, analysis, and targeting which implies that there will be some serious complexities.

You’ll need a whole system to manage the data, which typically demands additional costs to manage customized content or experiences. So, you’ll need to carefully evaluate if the benefits of personalization might outweigh these additional costs and complexities or not.

 

B2B vs B2C Personalization

You need to also have it at the back of your mind that B2B personalization will naturally be more complex than B2C because there are several decision-makers in a B2B sales process and the customer journey is fragmented than B2C. Nonetheless, it’s not impossible. What is important however is that you provide each stakeholder with personalized information and content that they might be most interested in.

Conclusion

By now you would agree that effective personalization can give a large number of benefits including better customer engagement and increased ROI. However, you’ll need to have a rigorous testing process in place before you start.

Smart content, personalized videos, chatbots, and exit intent pop-ups are all very useful tools to have in your personalization strategy, but above all make sure both you and your customers are ready for them.