The Tactical Role of Personalization in Your Marketing Automation Strategy

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The dynamic world of marketing is keep evolving and marketers are dealing with some new terms and definitions regularly. One of new addition in the marketing dictionary is Personalized marketing that is also referred as one-to-one marketing. It is a marketing strategy that companies leverage data analysis and digital technology in delivering individualized messages and product offerings to either current or prospective customers.

The digital ecosystem is get getting bigger and more complicated. Marketers are trying to catch the attention of the hyperconnected customer. Software platforms and technologies that enable marketing departments and organizations to market effectively on multiple online channels like emails, social media, websites, etc. and further automate repetitive tasks is what marketing automation does.

Today, one is living in an age of personal data. And personalization has revolutionized the business world. This revolution in personalizing of marketing strategy has resulted in changing the type of content being produced. Personalization has indeed become a big deal in the marketing automation strategy for conversions. Isn’t one seeing how Facebook has become the masters of personalization by frequently gathering consumer data in improving their offerings? With the advancement of Artificial Intelligence, marketers today have a list of tools and algorithms that help to speed up their daily operations.

Customer service experience is all to do with managing customers and satisfying their requirements. And the best way to improve customer experience is to personalize one’s product or service. It’s worth it. A better customer service experience using personalization may involve some of the below:

– Welcome back message in live chat,
– Making employees visible that enable customers to identify with,
– Communicating with customers via e-mails, etc.

Marketing automation is like a chain reaction. Companies need to know each customer to understand what content they should be provided. Marketers need to know what the customer is trying to do at a particular moment. Here, we see how personalization becomes the key to a marketing automation strategy. Once the marketing content is sent, companies must measure its effectiveness. As marketing automation sits right in the middle of personalization research, both are required to be well integrated with. Companies should measure the effectiveness of their marketing content. It’s interesting and becomes entirely necessary to understand the various tactical roles of personalization and how it helps in a marketing automation strategy.

Locating Geo-location: Certain types of products or services may not be available in certain locations or are specific to a certain region. That’s where the geo-location becomes an important part of content automation. This type of information can be augmented with the help of behavioral data and customer data. That’s how the role of personalization is of tactical importance in such a scenario.

Though less accurate, geo-location marketing is the oldest form of personalized marketing. However, the primary advantage is that one does not have gathered any data. Merely getting a customer’s IP address gives an idea of their location. While it is not accurate to determine their exact address, it’s good enough to determine which country or state they are in. The accuracy of this method being variable, it needs no data gathering; but plays an important tactical role of personalizing a marketing automation strategy anyways.

Tapping Device Type Used: Knowing whether a user using a desktop computer or a mobile device usually provide clues about what they are trying to do. By additionally knowing whether the user is a new customer or a repeat customer, as well as knowing variables like frequency of visits; one could individually research every lead in their database and create a marketing content specifically for each of them. Alternately, if one is not averse to researching, they could very well automate the process.

Behavioural Data: Even though personalized marketing is a highly effective strategy, most marketers aren’t actually paying much attention to it. Businesses who personalize their web experience usually see an increase in their sales. Behavioral personalization is a quick win! It’s a personalization tactic that focuses on what the customer does, not who they are. Unlike customer information that goes out of date, behavioral data is based on the very latest action making it more relevant. For example, a behavioral triggered email from a company to its prospective customer is highly personal and reminds them exactly what they just left in their shopping bag.

Website Personalization: When discussing personalization, it’s very much assumed to be strategizing of e-mail content. But, hold on, even the web content can be personalized just like an e-mail. The homepage, product pages, and checkout can be personally curated for every visitor. It can be tailored to their browsing and buying habits making it friendlier for them to find and buy what they are looking for.
As can be seen, website personalization is a great way to increase conversion rates which gives the end-to-end personalized customer experience, from email to check out. For example, Amazon is a leader in displaying personalized product recommendations on their website. Also, in exchange for downloadable content, it should be noted that the more actions take place on a website, the more personal information a user gives in!

Profiling Customer Data: Customer profiling allows making recommendations based on what one thinks their customer might like. It’s not just guesswork – it’s all based on customer insight and algorithms. Isn’t this an easy way to generate a prediction on what the customer might like or do next, even before they know it themselves? There are a lot of software applications around that lets one quickly profile, segment and analyze trends in their customer data which can further be used to make recommendations.
Once brands have enough data, it’s easier to segment the audience based on a range of factors like age, gender, income, location, interests, and pain points. Apart from that; the shopping habits like frequency and purchases, incentives responded well too; and information needed to take a decision serves a useful purpose.

Extracting Most Out of Mobile: The dynamics of social media keeps shifting, but mobile is here to stay, and the full impact on personalization remains to be exploited yet. The advantage of mobile apps is that it serves user needs at any given moment. Customers who download mobile apps need to be considered as the most valuable customers by business houses. Those who download an app, are either asking to have a relationship with that brand or to extend their existing relationship.
So, it’s critical that it is personalized to such a level as to prove to them that the app is worth space it’s occupying on their devices. Every time customers open an app, they expect a highly efficient, personalized app experience. That shows how tactical is the role of personalization in a mobile marketing strategy. But, the soothing part is that the features within an app make it easier to offer a personalized experience to every user.

With more user data being readily collected and available, personalization is becoming the default mode with apps that are ultimately tailoring a user’s experience. Having now seen the tactical role of customization in a marketing automation strategy; with the right tools in place, one can quickly put it into practice. It is indeed bound to help deliver a better online experience and prompt customers to buy more, along with nurturing their relationship with them.
Personalization is forming a key component, businesses today are seeing traffic and sales coming through their marketing automation strategy. Optimizing and creating a strategy that includes personalization is no longer optional for brands, but more tactical and a necessity. It is therefore essential to have tactical personalization in mind from the very beginning of a marketing automation and planning process to derive a healthy growth and revenue going forward.

Neel Sinha
Neel Sinha is the creator of MyLnk. The innovative link shortener and URL management solution. The platform helps to shorten a link right away with great analytics. He is also the Founder & Principal Consultant at NFaktor and creator of the popular Comic Strip "Norman Liker." He has invented MyLoc, a new way to own your digital location pin. An IIM alumni, and an engineer with around 25 years of a successful professional career. He has excellent exposure to diverse markets, products, and solutions. Neel has traveled across the globe in sales and leadership roles.

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