Would you like to have a more personal relationship with your favorite brands? Of course, you would! And that’s where personalization comes in. Personalizing a customer’s experience means tailoring what they see and how they interact with your brand to make them feel special. It can be as simple as using their name on the home page or sending them a customized email based on their purchase history. This blog post will discuss four ways to personalize your customer’s experience for greater engagement and sales.
Marketing personalization is a key ingredient in fostering customer loyalty and repeat engagement. According to Marketingprofs, Businesses that adopt personalized marketing see an average 19% increase in sales. That’s significant! The more data brands have to work with, the more relevant experiences they can design–creating a virtuous circle that leads to strong customer lifetime value and long-term loyalty.
Planning items for a successful personalization campaign:
Personalization is complex only in that it has more than two moving parts. Make sure that when you build one, you consider these points, and you will be mastering personalization in no time. Better if you plan it just as you would a regular marketing campaign because much of what you can do will come just from your marketing team.
- Know your target audience based on your data – from basic demographics to online behaviors, attitudes, interests, and perceptions. Optimize based on the devices and channels they prefer
- Build real-life, data-driven target audiences, and personalize your communications for each of them as if they represented just one segment or personas.
- Dynamic content helps you personalize the customer experience by factoring in interests and past behavior.
- Be present on social platforms your audience prefers, when they’re likely to be online and what sort of content they like to engage with.
1 Use customer location or demographics to personalize the buyer experience
With consistent customer engagement focused on getting feedback from your customers. If you know where your customer is located, you can tailor the shopping experience to them. For example, if they’re in a city, you could show them popular products in that area. Ask them for any key demographic; if they’re a certain sports group or gender, you could recommend items typically bought by people like them.
Getting the most out of marketing campaigns helps us learn more about them as individuals by applying what we know about what interests or behaviors might appeal to them. If your customer database is rich with personal email addresses, you can go to a customer profile data distributor that sends you a demographic profile based on the email address. Marketers sometimes need outside data providers to get the household demographics from Experian and Personix. The information includes income brackets, brands like automobiles and cell phones they’re most likely to trust, and where people shop- this is a valuable insight for any marketer! These characteristics may be what you already figured out, but you can easily tailor a story for the customer.
Your messaging needs to reflect your smaller audience too. Now Meta allows you to narrow your targeted ads by all the demographic criteria marketers could dream of having. Run social ads cost-efficiently by placing your ads and ad copy by narrowing audiences based on a list of demographics.
2 Use the customer journey to leverage behaviors
Understanding your customer and how they use your product is especially important for customer retention. If you keep track of what your customers have bought in the past, you can make recommendations for similar or related items. For example, if they’ve purchased a dress from you before, you could recommend shoes and accessories that would go well.
In most of the well-done eCommerce sites, you will see questions like “We’ve noticed questions like, “Would you like us to automatically add this product to your cart for your next visit?”. If you know they are frequent product shoppers, why not reduce the friction of repurchasing? If there is a way to help the customer repurchase again based on the information they gave you on the first purchase, then use it because they gave it to you.
3 Surprise and delight your customers with a special offer
Everyone loves getting a good deal, so why not surprise your customers with a special offer? If you know they’re interested in a certain product, send them an exclusive coupon code for it or give them a discount on their next purchase. Instead of spraying your customer database with the same promotion, use your customer data platform (CDP) to identify segments that would be potentially loyal. This segment is prime for a special offer to lock them into loyalty.
Marketers can still rely on tried and true RFM modeling to help you to look at your customer data continuously to see customers move up the different segments into a Champion. With RFM, you may be able to distinguish a potentially loyal customer from one already loyal to your brand. Surprising the customer with a sense of “great timing” happens when you make a special offer and evokes a sense of luck with your brand. That added serendipity can improve your customer experience immensely.
Make sure you have a clear plan for how you’ll make their life more convenient. To focus the company’s communication elements and discounts available to that particular sector, create target audiences. Exclusive access, early hours, and special pricing for members of your loyal customer groups are just a few examples of personalized marketing initiatives.
4 Tell product stories your customers have told you
Storytelling that leverages customer data enables brands to drive more meaningful connections on a personal level and increase brand loyalty. Perhaps you remember how Facebook users share video creation of the posts you have shared that year. This Facebook example engages customers more with the product by giving them an emotional story they can share.
Stories generally resonate with people better than facts and special offers because of the emotional connection it creates.
If you have a product catered to a certain lifestyle, consider stories that will show your customer how others like them are using it. For example, if you’re selling an outdoor camping stove, tell the story of someone who took it on their first solo camping trip and made gourmet meals the whole time.
Sharing customer success stories also empowers prospects to believe they can do it themselves. Like customer reviews, your prospect may want to see the results of a previous customer.
Personalizing your customer’s experience is one of the best ways to create loyalty and encourage repeat engagement. By using data to understand what customers want and need, you can design experiences that are tailored specifically for them. This takes time and effort, but the results are worth it. If you’re looking for help with personalization, our team of experts is here to assist you. Contact us today to get started!
