Customers, at this age, are always on the run. Not only are they struggling against the clock, but more competitors are trying to fetch their attention.
Personalization is a golden key that could help you grab their eyeballs and compel them to dig more. It is equally essential for small and big entities to wiggle into customers’ lives through personalized experiences.
According to Infosys' research, 86% of the shoppers believe marketing personalization impacts their purchase behavior. Such figures indicate how a company might be missing out on a large chunk of customers due to the absence of personal touch.
This becomes even more crucial if you are a small business competing against market sharks. It is typical for a small venture to have limited staffing, budget, and resources. Adding a personalization strategy could help you beat the odds and stand out in the crowded market.
Why Does It Matter?
Even though we have ample research on the significance of personalization, it is imperative to probe more into the subject. The reasons for its importance might convince you to make informed decisions.
For starters, personalization is not merely a competitive advantage. Instead, your prospects expect it through every interaction. The digital marketing agency AgilOne carried out a survey of over 3000 adult consumers in the US. Over 70% of the people said they expect personalized experiences when they interact with brands. Focus on the words here – they don’t want, they EXPECT!
A survey by Evergage has discovered that marketers also appreciate the value of personalization. 96% of the respondents felt it helped them advance customer relations, and 88% perceived it to be a measurable upgrade in the overall company outcomes. Meanwhile, 61% said personalization helps to deliver a better customer experience.
The perks of personalization are far and varied. Some of which are listed below:
- Increased conversion, sales, and revenue
- Boosts customer retention
- Superior customer service
- Lower bounce rates and increased ROI
Small Business Personalization Strategies
The heart of personalization is achieving goals. Pursuing your small venture with a perfect personalization recipe could take it to new heights.
Below, we have rounded up some strategies that could help you out in this regard:
Leverage Data to Enhance Experiences
Data is the foundation of every action in the marketing domain. Deciding which data to use for personalization can be challenging as customer and visitor data is constantly evolving. It involves profiling target customers and characterizing them as per their attributes.
The level of depth can vary according to the company. For instance, they can choose to perform analytics on customer purchases, conduct online surveys, or send follow-up emails to the new buyers.
Online lingerie store Adore Me shows us how to do it the right way. The platform recommends products based on customers shopping tastes and style. When shoppers open an account, Adore Me asks them to complete a survey that matches their personality. Simultaneously, it also offers expert assistance to guide the customer along the way.
Keep in mind, not all data that you collect from the users is actionable. Following are the key types of data for successful personalization:
- Firmographic Data: This is the collection of all data points about a business. It covers the company name, employees, industry type, stage in the sales cycle, and overall revenue.
- Behavioral Data: It reveals everything about visitors’ actions while they use your app or website. It covers pages reviewed, average site time, clicked links, and the number of visits.
- Demographic Data: This gathers all essential information about an individual, including their name, ID, location, and title.
- Contextual Data: This is related to the unique properties while providing context to their attitude on the app or website. It covers browser type, location, device type, and time of the day.
The better you understand who they are and what they prefer, the easier it becomes to connect with them. Pragmatic leverage of data can excite customers to interact with you.
Plan Your Content Library
Content personalization is the act of tailoring different types of content to individual consumers. Attainable information (gathered in the data collection stage) is put against a set of variables, such as:
- Referring URL
- Gender
- Age
- Location
- Visit numbers
- Sessions behavior
Mapping out your customers’ journey from the first visit to being loyal needs thorough evaluation. This plays a significant factor in devising a content plan for your customers.
Though most of the content revolves around potential customers, you should not forget to focus on the existing customers to encourage repeat business. Brand personas could come in handy during this phase to guide your content composition and better understand the various customers’ needs.
As per Rapt Media (2016), 83% of marketers believe personalized content is their biggest challenge. You must know that dynamic content personalization automatically changes content according to consumer preferences. The aim is to drive the right eyes to the right content.
Pet accessories store Whiner & Diner has made personalization the core of its operations. It allows the customers to showcase their pets on the official store website. This practice allows the company to gain repeat customers and word-of-mouth business.
Humanize Your Interactions
Accenture (2016) sheds light on the fact that 75% of the customers are more likely to buy from a retailer who recognizes them by name or knows their purchase behavior.
It is a natural human instinct to respond positively when they feel valued. Customer appreciates and responds to the brands that have a personal and human touch when interacting with them.
This is more than using their first name in the emails. You need to create a warmer and friendly experience by adding the person's picture and name talking behind the screen. It puts a living face to your company, making customers feel connected and comfortable.
Dale Carnegie once said, and we fully agree:
“Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
Following this notion, Coca-Cola has inspired many brands across the world through its Share A Coke campaign. It was an endeavor to reach Millennials. In this movement, each bottle contained the most popular first names assigned to that generation. Eventually, they started printing semi-personal labels beyond the first names, such as “better half” or “best friend.”
The fundamental idea is to bring an emotional touch to marketing campaigns. A small business has a higher chance to convey its emotions and make customers feel less detached. For example, they could send emails to check how customers are doing or whether they are happy with their last purchase.
Therefore, a strategy based on behavioral psychology and customer empathy will help you communicate your unique value and create a lasting relationship.
Treat Known Contacts Like a VIP
When a visitor converts on your portal, for example, when they sign up for a newsletter or install a white paper, it brings a golden opportunity to tailor content for them in the future. Consider them a valuable asset as they provide you with their name, contact information, and location because they feel like trusting you.
Seize this chance to treat them as integral components for the company.
If you have been tracking the visitors' journey on your site, you can turn them into a lead by using that info. While doing so, it is highly essential to understand the difference between new customers and existing customers. If done right, you can speed up the time taken to make sales by giving them a delightful experience.
Let’s say they have signed up for your newsletter. You can continue building the relationship by offering something in return, such as free printable or discounts. According to Smarter HQ, 90% of consumers will share behavioral data if additional benefits make shopping cheaper or accessible.
Another tactic to make customers feel special is through a live chat option. The power of live chat allows a small business owner to communicate one-on-one with visitors. They can:
- Build strong connections: By speaking to the consumers in their language and humanize their online experience
- Have honest conversations: To get close and address the immediate needs of the target population. It will help the business to bring friendlier solutions to the table.
- Achieve better results: By delivering fast and effective experiences aiming to spike customer satisfaction.
A well-grounded live chat option or any other tactic, for that matter, could entice customers and make them feel like a star. This is your first achievement as a brand!
Personalized Follow-ups
An average sales rep makes 2 – 3 attempts to follow-up the prospects, as shown in the image below:
If you want to improve your team's ability to follow the potential customers and probe into their reasons for sales delay, you must obtain CRM (Customer Relationship Management) data. It will shed light on the following elements:
- Product demos they requested
- Email campaigns they clicked on
- Web pages they visited
- Sales meetings they seemed interested in
With these insights in perspective, your sales team can connect with the customers and send personalized emails. A trigger-based email from Black Milk Clothing sets a fantastic example in this regard. They send out an email every time a customer abandons a shopping cart with items in it. They insert a cute image of a puppy to add persuasion.
According to Backlinko, sending a single follow-up email can increase your response rate by 65.8%. Adding the name of the prospects is the cherry on the top. It boosts the open rate by 29.3%.
Take Mobile Context Into Account
Most people nowadays are glued to their screens. Coupled with a shorter attention span and hectic routines, the importance of mobile marketing needs adequate discussion. Visitors are likely to land on your page from anywhere at any time. This factor has compelled many marketers to adopt a mobile-first approach to their efforts, including site design and in-context experiences.
All components of your marketing must align with mobile optimization. For instance, if you send personalized emails, make sure it is simple and effective for mobile browsers. Mobile dominates the scene with over 50% opening rate as compared to the webmails at mid-30%. (Litmus Email Analytics, 2017)
Customers expect the sites to respond to their devices. From layout to fonts and imagery, every element needs optimization. With personalization tactics like geolocation, you can also obtain insight into where the customers are at a particular time. This will allow you to generate location-specific recommendations, enhancing their overall experiences.
Solve Customer Complaints Instantly
When a customer encounters a problem, they expect company authorities to be there. If they don’t get immediate answers, they are likely to feel frustrated and quit.
According to Hubspot Research, 2/3 of buyers expect a response within ten minutes to any sales, marketing, or customer service inquiry. Having a support team to provide necessary details about the customer issues can come in handy. They are capable of the following:
- Increasing the lifetime value of the customers
- Improving customer retention rate
- Provide consistent and timely support
The idea being, these teams could help you project yourself as people who value customers. The investment in this team has the potential to bring better profits in the future. It helps to differentiate you from the crowd and earn long-term business over and over again.
Parting Note
Personalization is not a usual marketing buzzword. It is a trend that is likely to bring a massive wave of change in the digital marketing landscape.
Sam Parsonson, the digital PR specialist for marketing agency seoplus+, says, and we agree that personalization emphasizes what your site is providing its users. It is no longer just about getting your name out there. Instead, it is about ensuring your brand has a purpose and is relevant.
As a small venture, your personalization steps could be small, but they might leave a drastic impact on customers’ affiliation with your company.
Make sure you come with creative and catchy solutions in this domain!
