We all are aware of the term Personalization in today’s digital landscape.
You may have heard of the term Personalization in digital marketing. If not, here is the most basic example to explain it: you must have received advertisement emails with your name in the first line, or in the subject line, that is Personalization. Wow.. the email is for me only, the offer is especially for me. This is how one may see that but the truth is the email is sent to thousands or lakhs of email addresses and each one of them is getting the email with their first name in it. How did they do it? we will get into it later. Let’s start with why they did it.
Before personalization came into the picture, marketers used to send out generic advertisement content to everyone they can. Back then, it was the game of numbers, the more you send the more you get. Then came-in the concept of Direct marketing, where the idea was to have a one-to-one interaction with the potential customer to make sure they convert. Here the term Personalization was introduced in marketing that allows marketers to tailor content and target in such a way that it looks like a one-to-one interaction.
Who doesn’t enjoy that feeling of walking into a shop and being recognized, welcomed and treated as an individual?
We all relish the personal touch, and this is no less the case when it comes to the marketing we are subjected to online. If you were to stop and take stock at the leaps and bounds made in personalisation over the past decade or so, you couldn’t fail to be impressed.
Five years ago, the most you could expect was messages that made a website visitor feel like they were being spoken to, with phrases like ‘Glad to have you back’ being used to develop a ‘relationship’. These days with the wealth of implicit and explicit customer data available to marketers, the opportunities afforded by personalisation have changed beyond recognition. Particularly in ecommerce, personalisation has been not just limited to welcome messages, but product recommendations: ‘if you liked this product, try these’.
As we progress towards the exhilarating world of ‘the Internet of Things’, manufacturers and developers are finding ingenious ways to make a customer’s experience of a product or service become more personal.
According to a study by econsultancy, 60% of customers online prefer it if an online store remembers their contact details and purchase information. A large swathe of ecommerce customers wants that store to retain all of that personal information, and they expect to receive a personal service that recognises them and how they shop.
Fantastic news if you are already talking to your customers in a personalised and relevant way. It is a problem though, if you are not.
Same study shows, 74% of marketers know that personalisation increases customer engagement and only 19% of marketers are actually using personalisation.
Perhaps it would do to briefly re-examine few benefits of personalisation:
- Increases Conversion
- Less Email yields more customers
- Builds a passionate audience
- Improves lead nurturing
- Improves sales call
- Keeps your website fresh
- Welcome newcomers
- Helps Create Marketing People Love
- Builds Relationships
- Increase customer engagement
- Better customer experience
- Customer retention