We now get emails, even business emails, addressed to our first names. That’s how personalisation works, and that’s how we like it in this day and age.
Amazon and Netflix have made fortunes thanks to this very marketing trick. Product recommendations are now ‘inspired by your browsing history’ and our next binge is decided by ‘top picks for [your name]’. Recommendation engines are highly popular now, thanks to these two B2C giants.
Like Amazon, Facebook too provides content personalisation – our News Feed is personalised to our liking. This includes everything from relevant advertisements, updates from our friends to the news articles trending in our region, and suggested events we can attend. The ads too are personalised for us by the advertisers who want to target a specific audience based on demographics, interests, and geographic location.
Also Read: How to Move Social Traffic to Sales Funnel: A 6-Step Guide
Nevertheless, for B2B companies, better data analysis has made it possible to deliver personalised ads, product offerings, as well as correspondence to a specific audience at the right time. This includes the content they are shown as they encounter a brand.
It’s time to get personal!
What is Content Personalisation?
In simple terms, content personalisation is using the data collected from visitors to a brand’s website or social media platforms, to provide content customised to their needs.
For example, if a brand has a geo-location-based customised landing page for their website, it could look different to the two visitors from two different countries.
A 2017 Monetate study found that
- Documenting a personalisation strategy impacts your ROI. 79% of those that exceeded revenue goals have a documented personalisation strategy.
- Dedicated investment into personalisation is a must. Those that exceed revenue goals have a dedicated budget for personalisation 83% of the time.
- Personalisation efforts increase profitability. 95% of those that get 3x ROI from their personalisation efforts increased profitability last year.
Also Read: How Content Can Power Your Marketing Automation
Customise, but Don’t Take It Too Personally
Personalisation comes naturally to content marketing. When compared to targeted advertising, content marketing is more successful at reaching customers. This is because content can be delivered to customers without vested marketing or sales interests. Personalised content marketing goes way beyond receiving a first name-based greeting in a marketing email.
Hubspot reported that nearly three-fourths (74%) of online consumers get frustrated with websites when the content (e.g., offers, ads, promotions) has nothing to do with their interests.
However, there’s a line to be drawn when it comes to personalisation.
An InMoment study of more than 2,000 consumers suggested that 75 percent find most forms of personalisation creepy, and 40 percent of brands admitted to being creepy with their personalisation efforts.
As a marketer, you must know where to draw the line before coming across as creepy.
How to Personalise Content?
As a marketer, ensure content personalisation without bothering your customer.
Content personalisation depends on the brand’s audience. The data collected in the CRM can help content marketers define different audience types. Segment the audience based on the following metrics:
- Location: Knowing where the audience is located is crucial for marketers to deliver accurate geo-targeted offerings.
- Behaviour: Data regarding how the audience interacted with a brand’s content in the past can be crucial, and will help marketers avoid coming across as careless.
- Interest: Targeting the audience based on the industry or niche that they come from, will help marketers understand the goals of the category that visitor best fits into.
- Referral: Knowing where the traffic comes from can also help segment a brand’s target audience.
Once a marketer knows where their audience is coming from, they can then decide how to personalise content for each of those audience segments.
Also Read: CDP Delivers Personalised Customer Experiences at Scale
Personalise your content in the following ways:
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Content Recommendation:
This is one of the easiest ways to incorporate personalisation in a content marketing strategy. Use the audience segment to target specific content that caters to their need.
A personalisation software can then monitor which segments respond best to each piece of content, and adjust the data accordingly.
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Content Attributes
Using personalisation tools, marketers can use existing content attributes, such as offers, images, or the copy to create multiple “experiences” from the same piece of content.
The point of personalisation is to give ones’ customers as well as prospects an experience that helps build a bond between the brand and the customer. It is a way of showing them that the brand is paying attention to their needs and is catering to them. We all want that, even if it means preferring a particular coffee shop because the barista knows how we like our coffee.
When done correctly, content personalisation can lead to better brand loyalty and even better sales.
