Personalization In Marketing

What is personalized marketing and why is it important? Personalized marketing is a strategy businesses use to tailor their communications to individual consumers. What makes this different from standard marketing is that businesses will collect data about their customer's preferences, behaviors and any previous interactions they may have had and use this data to deliver more relevant and meaningful messages to the consumers. The main goal of personalized marketing is to create messages that truly engage customers or prospective customers by communicating with each as an individual.

The Benefits of Personalization in Marketing

There are a variety of advantages that personalized marketing can provide for both consumers and businesses. The benefits for both sides are all dependent upon the success of the implemented strategy. Some benefits include:

• Improved Customer Experience: When personalized marketing is done right it enriches the customer experience by demonstrating an understanding of individual needs and preferences. Through custom-tailored experiences, businesses can simplify the customer's journey, enhance their interactions, and make their experience more seamless and enjoyable.
• Increased Customer/Brand Loyalty: Personalized marketing can contribute to an increase in both customer and brand loyalty. Effective personalized marketing that offers customized experiences that resonate with consumers will result in happier customers. This in turn will result in strengthened brand loyalty and ultimately higher profits for the company.
• Increased Engagement: Personalized marketing strategies that effectively execute delivering relevant and timely messages to individual customers will result in increased interest from the consumer. Once the interest of a customer is captured it encourages interaction with the brand, leading to improved engagement and stronger customer relationships.

Today customers expect some level of personalization in every campaign that a brand runs. But what does that personalization look like? Here are some examples of personalized marketing campaigns that can lead to greater success.

Targeted Emails

Emails are a great way for a company to tailor and personalize to a specific group of individuals with certain needs. When a company can gather customer information through sign-up forms, they typically gather information that can then be used to cater to that specific customer. For example, if a clothing company obtains customer data such as birth dates all the way to a customer’s particular interests, the company could then send out particular clothing styles that they think would best suit the liking of the individual they are emailing. Creating a more personalized and engaging message for the consumer.

Custom Video Messages

The average online user has a very short attention span when it comes to reading. Studies have shown that the average user loses interest in about 15 seconds or less. However, leveraging videos with custom messaging can be a very effective approach to keep customers engaged. In an example of social media, videos can be created using customer data that the company has already obtained, such as your name and other personalized information that you used in their profile. This type of personalization is memorable for the consumers, but it can be time-consuming without the right automation technology in place, so it's important to note that the right tools and resources are a must to this type of messaging as scalable as possible

Product Placement

Product placement has been a common tactic for businesses for a long time, simply because it works. This type of campaign will use data collection to determine what type of product, service, or offer is most likely to entice a user. A good example of this is Netflix. When a user first sets up their account on Netflix, they are asked to pick three movies, TV shows or categories that interest them. Based on the data that is collected, the user will be recommended movies and TV shows based on their preferences, providing them with options they are more likely to watch. Additionally, this prevents movies and TV shows off the suggested lists that users don't find particularly interesting from flooding their algorithms.

Social Media Marketing

When a company interacts with consumers and potential customers across social media platforms it can greatly increase brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Social media has quickly become a staple in multichannel marketing initiatives. A company can send highly personalized and relevant social media messages to each consumer through automation. This allows markets to collect responses and customer data from these social media channels and use this data to further improve communication efforts and drive conversions.

Creating a Successful Personalized Marketing Strategy

So how do you create a successful personalized marketing strategy? Here are some key considerations to follow when creating your strategy.

• Establishing a Direct Team: Gathering an internal team within the marketing department dedicated to devising, executing, and maintaining personalized marketing strategies is a crucial first step in guaranteeing the success of your strategy. This team should be more than equipped to overcome obstacles and challenges, while also prioritizing achieving business outcomes.
• Identifying Marketing Channels: Selecting the right marketing channels is crucial to the success of your strategy. Typically starting with email marketing and website personalization is always a safe recommendation due to their effectiveness.
• Capture and Leverage Data: A plan will need to be in place to capture and leverage customer data efficiently. Data collection methods may include tracking, conversational AI chatbots, or quizzes on your website. However, whichever method you choose to collect your customer's data, it is important to ensure full transparency when doing so to foster customer trust.
• Develop and Launch Campaigns: Finalizing decisions on visuals, messaging specifics, and the frequency and timing of campaigns will be the last step before launching your campaign. Once these decisions have been made, the campaign should be activated to ensure effective implementation. Once the campaign has launched it will be important to monitor all aspects of the campaign to ensure it remains on track. A/B testing can be utilized to compare audience responses and engagement to different messages across different channels. The campaign can then be refined based on the findings and insights that are gathered.

Personalization in Marketing has become a very important standard in the industry. The Data Marketing Communications program offers courses in Message Customization and Audience Segmentation that are vital for enhancing the necessary skill set for personalization in marketing.

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