Consumers nowadays are flooded with every new marketing trick or gimmick and that harms the customer experience. This is why brands today are all implementing some type of personalization in their marketing. They’ve taken this path because marketing personalization is vital for success, it’s not a choice.
In fact, over 76% of consumers have said that they are much more likely to consider buying from a brand that implements personalization in their marketing. This method also leads to more word-of-mouth recommendations and repeat purchases which is another goal brands should strive for.
But, let’s delve deeper to see exactly where the power lies in personalization and how it creates a more engaging experience for customers.
What Is Marketing Personalization?
Personalization in marketing is the use of data to make advertisements or marketing efforts that are specific to certain individuals or groups of customers. These marketing efforts are tailored based on their (the customer’s) needs and preferences.
In simpler terms, using a universal, one-size-fits-all solution for an entire customer base doesn’t cut it, so businesses need to invest more time to create more engaging content for an overall better customer experience.
As we mentioned previously, this type of marketing strategy is expected from most consumers (over two-thirds), so it’s definitely a necessity for the growth of one brand.
Why Is Marketing Personalization So Effective?
We understand what marketing personalization is and through common sense, we understand why consumers prefer personalization over traditional marketing. But, what exactly makes personalization in marketing so effective?
Well, first things first, we have to consider the fact that with the digital world i.e. numerous social media platforms, web content, influencers, email, TV, and many other mediums, consumers are exposed to dozens or even hundreds of ads on a daily basis. That adds up to thousands of ads every month!
Out of a thousand, businesses need to do personalization to get through all that fluff and catch the customer’s eye.
Let’s do a breakdown of the benefits of marketing personalization:
- Personal connection with consumers – one thing many ads lack and that’s humaneness, or rather, “soul”. This is because most ads are a marketing strategy made for everyone. This is why personalized ads can create a personal connection between customers and brands. This is especially true for email marketing as customers are much more likely to respond (convert).
- Improved revenue – one thing is for certain, if personalizing emails and ads leads to better conversation then that means improved revenue for the business. We also mentioned that word-of-mouth recommendations and repeat purchases are also more frequent which adds up to the revenue.
- Brand name reputation – building a strong brand reputation in the digital world is a challenge. Doing the right thing in the eyes of the customers is not easy, so the company’s reputation builds very slowly. While one wrong decision can ruin a brand’s entire reputation. However, marketing personalization has proven to be an effective way to steadily build a reputation without any controversies.
- Accurate targeting – personalization is never about buying a customer’s trust which leads to a boost in company revenue. It’s about accurately targeting buyers to ensure they get the best possible service as well. Knowing how to approach your customers, when, how often, and with which products considerably enhance their buying experience which leads to a side effect of increased revenue.
- Improved ROI – personalized marketing strategies also lead to improved return on marketing investment over other traditional strategies.
Powerful Personalized Marketing Strategies
One of the best ways to understand why and how personalized marketing works is to look at popular and effective strategies, tactics, and examples.
Targeted Product Recommendations
If you open up your email, you probably have an overflow of advertising emails and you most likely will open just a few of them. This is true for most consumers and with other forms of advertising as well.
That’s why brands utilize data to accurately target their product recommendations. Delivering the right type of product to a customer will heavily impact email conversion.
Custom Emails
For effective product recommendations, brands also need to personalize their emails to best fit their customers. Generic emails and overall advertising are not effective even if the product recommendation fits the customer’s needs.
Dynamic Website Content
A bit harder to execute as it requires a lot of data collection and analysis paired with proper customer targeting, but it can be very effective. With dynamic content, different customers get a different experience on the website.
For example, one person might get a set of product recommendations on the landing page while another person might get a completely different set of product recommendations solely based on data, browsing history, etc. But setting up dynamic website content isn’t as much of a challenge anymore for brands when they’ve utilized the right eCommerce web hosting services.
FOMO
Another popular, but essential strategy for personalized marketing is utilizing the FOMO phenomenon. It’s the fear of missing out on products or services while they’re offered at a good value. Next time you see products with “Sale ends in 24 hours”, you’ll know this is the FOMO marketing tactic.
Location-Based Personalized Marketing: Practical Example
Let’s build a scenario to show a practical example: A certain shoe shop wants to increase its daily physical sales compared to online orders.
To do that through location-based marketing, the business collects location-based data (through GPS or Wi-Fi hotspots) and then splits its audience into different categories based on distance from the shoe shop. Customers in a certain radius can get ads that offer FOMO deals which last only a few minutes, or push notifications that offer time-limited (20% until 2PM) discounts.
With enough monitoring, the business can then figure out how customers respond to the ads and deals, and then further fine-tune the advertising to maximize daily traffic/physical sales.
Essential Tools For Marketing Personalization
Simply implementing personalized marketing in a business is not enough as technologies for improving this marketing strategy are improving on a day-to-day basis. This is why it is vital to implement the right tools for proper personalization in marketing.
AI, LLMs, and Machine Learning
It’s no secret that AI and machine learning are now in full focus for all companies. And, that focus is there for a good reason!
Utilizing large language models to analyze copious amounts of data to create the most accurately personalized advertisements for customers can be a game changer.
Automated Marketing
For businesses to stay competitive when it comes to personalization, or marketing in general, they have to utilize automation. With social media marketing, email campaigns, content marketing, blogging, and other marketing activities automized businesses ensure they’re constantly in close contact with their customer base.
Reliable Web Hosting Services And Website Design
While proper data analysis, accurate product recommendations, and customized email campaigns are vital for personalized marketing, ensuring the best buyer’s experience is just as important. This is why businesses must invest in a reliable web hosting service and proper landing page/website design.
Quality web hosting ensures fast loading times, as little downtime as possible, and extra security for the customer while a well-made page design offers accessibility, efficiency, satisfying visuals, and clear navigation tools.
FAQs
What is personalization in marketing?
Personalization in marketing entails behavioral tracking and data analysis to provide customers with ads based on their needs and preferences. This creates a more natural interaction between the brand and consumers, it delivers the right product to the right customer and significantly boosts revenue for businesses.
How can brands collect customer data for personalization?
Website and email analytics do not provide enough data to make an inaccurate personalization of an ad. This is why it is very important for brands to implement other forms of data collection such as customer feedback, public records, social media, AI tools, interviews, chatbots, email newsletters, etc.
How useful is personalization in marketing?
Customers are much more likely to purchase from a brand that personalizes their ads. They are also more likely to make a repeat purchase as well. So personalized marketing is definitely very useful for the customer as it also leads to a much better experience.
Marketing personalization can be a challenge for brands, but it is still effective as it can significantly improve revenue. It benefits both sides of the table.
