Some recent statistics say consumers delete as many as 22 emails from various brands every day — often without reading them. They simply aren’t relevant to their recipients.
The marketing departments behind these emails may know they’re not getting the response they want, but they may not know why. The fact is that because consumers face such a deluge of information every day, marketing tools need a little extra something to get through the noise. That’s where personalization comes in.
The marketing departments behind these emails may know they’re not getting the response they want, but they may not know why. The fact is that because consumers face such a deluge of information every day, marketing tools need a little extra something to get through the noise. That’s where personalization comes in.
The Power of Personalization
Personalized content is one of the most powerful tools in a marketer’s arsenal. These days, it goes hand-in-hand with big data marketing techniques, which let you pinpoint individual demographics with laser precision. Basically, you’ll get to know your audience as intimately as Amazon does — including knowledge about prior purchases, likes, dislikes and more.
From there, you can determine that demographic’s individual wants and needs and create campaigns specifically designed to target them, ranging from hand-tailored emails to automated product suggestions and more. Your sales team can even use personalization to identify customers at various points of the sales process: you can give introductory information to newer leads and push more established leads toward closing.
One of the most powerful things personalization can do for you is increase brand loyalty. People love personalized content precisely because it’s relevant to them. They often find it interesting or informative. If you’re consistently offering interesting, engaging personalized content to your audience, they’ll continue to engage with your content, creating a positive feedback loop. They’ll end up with a positive impression of your brand because you’re engaging, interesting and knowledgeable.
Personalization Is for Everybody
Many marketers think personalization is only useful for certain demographics. It’s traditionally been used by cutting-edge internet companies, so the perception is that unless you’re marketing to a young, technologically skilled demographic (like millennials) or you’re marketing something high-end and technical, you don’t have any use for personalized content.
This couldn’t be further from the case. Just because personalization involves data and a certain amount of sophisticated technology doesn’t mean it’s solely the province of high-powered tech companies. And just because it’s traditionally been used to market to youthful demographics doesn’t mean it can’t be extended beyond that.
No matter what you’re selling or whom you’re selling to, there isn’t a demographic in the world that won’t perk up at the sight of content that’s relevant to them. Personalized content has something to offer every marketer.
How to Harness Personalization
It’s easy to know you want to personalize your content. Figuring how to implement content personalization is trickier. Luckily, there are many tools available to help. These help marketing teams identify demographics based on various pre-identified characteristics and can help you implement this exactly how you want.
Because personalization is a content strategy, not a technology, it can work on any platform. You can send personalized content via SMS or email campaigns or you can send personalized push or in-app notifications. You can even personalize web forms or web pages.
Don’t hamstring your marketing. Content personalization has something to offer every marketing department no matter what demographic you’re targeting. With a little research and thought, you can carefully curate an experience that your customers will find relevant, interesting and engaging — and they’ll keep on coming back to you for more.