Now more than ever, consumers want businesses to treat them as individuals. Personalization in your digital marketing can help.
In fact, personalization allows you to show that you really know your customers and can create unique experiences for them across platforms.
Personalized marketing, otherwise known as one-to-one marketing, refers to a business tailoring its marketing message to an individual based on available information, such as purchase history, interests and demographics. And yes, it can even be as simple as using the first name of a customer in a marketing email, for example.
The goal of personalization is that your target audience feels as though you’re speaking directly to them through your content, website experience and more.
About 90 percent of consumers in the U.S. find marketing personalization very or somewhat appealing, while about 80 percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences.
Of course, to power your personalization, you must gather available data and analyze the habits and behaviors of your potential and existing customers to craft the most effective marketing messages.
The following are eight benefits of personalization in your digital marketing.
Increased conversion rate
The likelihood of converting a prospective customer increases when you reach him or her with the right message at the right time.
This isn’t a stretch considering that sending an irrelevant message at an inappropriate time likely would be viewed as spam and can cause opt-outs, which is the last thing you want.
By focusing on curating an experience for that individual, you’re more likely to get a purchase through those efforts. This can range from emails to even videos, considering the latest available technology.
Check out our 16 tips to further boost your sales conversion rate.
Better understanding of your customers
By actually using whatever data you have available on your leads and customers, you can personalize an experience faster than businesses that don’t use data. This helps you stand out from the competition, but it also gives you a better understanding of your customer base.
That understanding not only improves consumers’ experience with you, but you also can leverage this understanding to optimize your website and digital marketing campaigns to truly reflect the needs and interests of your target audience.
Dive deeper into the new normal of digital marketing and how DailyStory can help your business.
Lower bounce rate and faster relationship building
When consumers are reading or viewing content that’s tailored to them and their interests, they’re more likely to stay longer on your website or other digital marketing channels.
This engagement keeps consumers engaged longer, which opens the door to building a trusting relationship with your brand. And relationships are key to creating and keeping a solid customer base for your business.
Check out our six ways to grow consumer trust beyond just personalization.
Boost in customer engagement and feedback
By embracing personalization in your digital marketing, an indirect benefit is increased customer engagement and feedback. This is because of your need for more (and better) data about your audience.
To gather more data, you can send out customer surveys and offer incentives (such as premium content or a coupon) to those who provide personal information.
The end result is better engagement with your audience and additional data to feed your personalization efforts.
Improved brand loyalty
The better the customer experience, the more likely those customers will not only return to purchase again but will also spread the word to friends and family. (And if they do so on social media, this increases your brand’s reach.)
Personalization allows you to make that experience as unique and personal as possible.
Learn more about brand loyalty and other ways to increase customer referrals.
Higher customer retention
Related to brand loyalty is customer retention, which measures that loyalty and whether a customer will continuously purchase products or services from a business.
Just a 5 percent increase in customer retention can lead to at least a 25 percent increase in profit.
You want to keep your customers purchasing from you once you acquire them. But as important as it is, customer retention is a big challenge for many businesses. Personalization in your digital marketing delivers the kind of experiences that can help.
Check out our six tips to improve your customer retention rate.
Improved lead nurturing
If you’re unfamiliar with lead nurturing, it’s a set of marketing strategies that aim to convert a potential customer into a buyer.
A common example is email drip campaigns. Email drip campaigns are a type of time-release email marketing tactic. Think drip irrigation systems. Drip emails are intended to land with purposeful timing and targeting with minimal waste (and technically minimal effort once set up to run automatically).
Think about it like a conversation that you’re building upon along the way.
They can be daily reminders, weekly specials, monthly updates, yearly renewal notices or anything in between, depending on your intention and goals. The idea is that while each email in a drip campaign should stand alone, they also should build upon past messages and even set the stage for future messaging. You want to nurture the customer along your sales funnel while building trust along the way.
By personalizing these messages for the wants and needs of each lead, you have a greater chance of converting that consumer into a customer. You lose that edge if you take the same approach with everyone.
Greater revenue
Generating additional revenue is critical for any business. And clearly, personalization in your digital marketing can ultimately lead to more purchases, which translates into more revenue.
It’s about being targeted in every aspect of your messaging to drive a consumer’s purchasing decision. This can include offering relevant product and/or service recommendations based on expressed interests, for example. But truly, personalization is like the rising tide that floats all boats, so to speak, because it improves the customer experience from beginning to end to a degree that encourages repeat purchases.
In conclusion
While data powers personalization, be mindful of how you collect and use that data. For example, customer privacy regulations can make it difficult to collect data and target advertisements. Opt-ins are critical.
You’ll also want to wade carefully into personalization strategies because customers may not realize or remember giving you permission to use their data. And if that’s the case, personalization can unnerve them. Be transparent during data collection and inform your opt-ins about how their data will be used by you.
As you’re exploring personalization in your digital marketing, consider leveling up your digital marketing process. DailyStory features personalization, automation, dynamic audience segmentation, email marketing, SMS text message marketing and so much more. Schedule your free demo with us today.
