Successfully Achieving Personalized Marketing
There have been some bad words spoken recently about how effective personalized e-commerce is. Some are claiming that it doesn’t work and that just isn’t true.
It all seems to come down to how this practice is implemented and what tactics are being used that drive results. It looks like our customers expect a more personalized approach than marketers choose to offer.
One relevant study comes from Pure360. According to their surveys, they found that using someone’s name in a marketing email only gives an 8% positive response. A further 7% said they would respond to targeted marketing due to their birthday.
The True Meaning of Personalized Ecommerce
You are scrolling through a website and you see a handful of product suggestions on the bottom. It shows a strip of items that you can tell are based around people of your gender and your age, and much of it is not flattering. Mainly because it is a selection of products that you have never before purchased or needed to purchase, but that someone might assume a person of your target demographic would enjoy.
Or you are going through your email and catch sight of a message that is titled, “[Your Name], I need to speak to you right away!” Upon opening it, it is a generic, uninteresting auto-mail from someone’s newsletter you forgot you had even signed up for. You roll your eyes and hit ‘delete’ without going any further.
The above examples show how you lazily customize to fit a potential customer. Is it any wonder the fish aren’t biting when the bait is so unappetizing?
Now imagine this:
You are on that same website and below is a collection of items you have been searching for price comparisons on all week. Others are items related to what you have purchased on the site in the past or reviewed highly elsewhere. They are even within a decent price range of your usual budget.
Later, you are going through your email and there is a newsletter you forgot your signed up for. But rather than cheap clickbait, it has a subject line about something that interests you. You take the time to click and read the whole thing and even end up back on the website through a provided coupon for an item you had put in your cart a few days before but hadn’t pulled the trigger on because of the price. Now you are getting it for 15% off and you couldn’t be more thrilled!
Notice how each of the counterexamples changes the consumer experience and makes them more willing to engage with your brand. Which was all because you showed them that you were actually paying attention to them as individuals, not a category or demographic. They are people, not walking dollar signs and stat sheets.
That is the true meaning of personalized e-commerce, and when done correctly, it is a great way to generate leads that turn to profit and also build a relationship with your customer base.
Advanced Personalization in Marketing: What You Can Do NOW
Implement Immediate On-Site Customization
What country are the visitors coming from? Check their IP and customize the site right away to reflect common language, currency, sizing, featured products based on location, etc. This makes the shopping experience seamless from the get-go.
Platforms like Duda and Moengage provide tools and settings making dynamic customization possible.
WordPress also has a few integrations that allow you to personalize your readers’ experience. For example, you can greet each user with a personalized message whenever they come back to your site.
Embrace Advanced Email Marketing Personalization
So using your customer’s name in an email is not enough to prompt a positive action (a sale or a click). But it doesn’t mean email marketing is no longer effective.
Advanced email marketing tools provide solid personalization features allowing you to reach your customers exactly when they are ready to buy. Convert Kit is one such platform allowing you to build sequences to personalize email messages based on steps your customers take when going down the sales funnel:
Make Sure Your Content Targets the Right Audience
On a higher level, you want to customize your content marketing tactics to ensure you are targeting the right audience.
Does your content meet customers’ expectations? Does your landing page do a good job converting your site visitors? How well do you satisfy your target customers’ needs?
Text Optimizer provides a quick way to analyze your current copy and helps you optimize your content to better meet your customers’ expectations:
Marketing automation is the future of marketing. If you start building that future now, you’ll soon find yourself ahead of your competition. I hope these simple tools and tips will help you get started!
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