Is the case for personalisation is well understood? In today’s market place generic content simply doesn’t suffice, businesses need to deliver a more tailored web experience if they wish to achieve higher conversion.
With this in mind, a commitment to personalisation seems a relative no-brainer. This level of interaction is no longer a bonus to consumers; it is now an expected part of their online experience
Not only does personalisation need to be at the centre of your online strategy, it also needs to be across all of the channels, campaigns and marketing activities. And it’s refreshing to see that digital marketers are starting to take this on board, with 37% of respondents highlighting personalisation as a top priority in our recent report.
Even more promising is that 52% of online marketers said that being able to effectively personalise content was central to their marketing strategy, with 71% claiming personalisation has a high impact on ROI.
When done right, personalisation is win-win for both the customer and the organisation. Customers benefit from a better experience, which often means their interaction with a business is more meaningful. They will often receive exclusive offers, or information on products of interest to them. This process means a customer is more likely to re-visit a site, and in turn purchase again from an organisation. This is particularly important as the retail landscape continues to shift digitally, meaning many businesses must compete for online traffic.
It seems that the industry is now beginning to understand the importance of personalisation but there is still a way to go for many. Below are some top-tips that digital marketers should follow to ensure their personalisation strategy is up to scratch – engaging customers and as a result increasing ROI.
Allow data to work for you
Whilst creating relevant marketing campaigns for numerous customer segments may initially seem difficult; doing so for individuals is practically impossible without the correct tools or solution in place. Once you’ve invested in effective creative content to engage visitors, as well as great data to understand their motivations and interests, let the data do the hard work and decide what the most relevant content and offers are to serve the customer at the detailed level.
Fully analyse your customer’s digital journey
Identifying key points along your customer’s virtual path is important, as it allows you to decipher where conversion is highest. Marketers can then develop a more personalised experience that has the most potential to grow conversion or engagement – whether it’s the homepage, search results page, landing page banner, add to cart button, or cross-sell promotions. Those that get this wrong run the risk of delivering irrelevant content to customers, waste valuable web real estate and at worse, miss out on sales opportunities.
Quality over quantity
Lead generation now takes on a more important role in both the marketing and sales efforts of companies that operate in a B2B market. Campaigns today need to be more focused on the leads that are sent to the pipeline – rather than how many they can channel through – it will always be quality not quantity that counts.
Understanding your inventory
It is important to use your analytics data when researching customer journeys. Are there specific search terms that are rendering null results? If so, make adjustments to display related products or consider bulking up your product inventory so that searches do not come up empty.
Get rid of ‘spray and pray’ emails
We believe mass broadcast email marketing is on its way out. As you capture insights into your customers’ interests and preferences, you should try to personalise campaigns and speak to them as individuals. Timing can be key in the online marketing process, and it is important to capitalise on the customer’s interest in your products as early as possible, as this will lead to much higher conversion rates. It is always worth recommending products and content to increase average order value as well as integrating dynamic content and product views to increase engagement and drive subscribers further down the path to conversion.
Ensure searching is easy
A search box should be one of the most prominent elements on your homepage, second only to your company logo. Visitors who search on your site are three times more likely to convert than those who only use navigation to browse.
Minimise the use of maths
While personalisation may often rely heavily on data and analytics, it is important not to completely surrender all control of customer experience management to machines. There is still a role for behavioural targeting, as long as you test against it regularly. A blend of data-led and intuitive marketing often works the best.
Maximise use of templates
Be sure to use marketing content with the same template and dynamically assemble the perfect creative asset combination and permutation. This should include images, copy, video, and even layout – in real-time based on observed on and off-site behaviours. This will help you get the right content, to the right person, at the right time.
Understanding your customers and their specific needs is at the heart of a successful marketing strategy. By adopting these steps, you can be sure that your marketing output is as relevant and appealing as possible.
Contributor
Tresilian Segal is head of marketing for Adobe’s Digital Marketing across Northern Europe.
