The Importance of Personalizing Marketing

Today’s consumers have high expectations from companies. They expect to be seen and communicated with on a personal level. That’s why generic marketing messages are doomed to fail. If a company is experiencing low engagement on social media, emails, and other content, it probably needs to evaluate and potentially boost its personalization efforts.

Research shows that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. And 76% get frustrated when this experience does not happen. To engage these consumers, companies need to add a high level of personalization to their marketing. For instance, a CRM system will track where customers are in the user journey, store touchpoint information, and unlock the ability to deliver a personalized experience to all current and potential customers. Companies not taking advantage of available technology will fall behind their close competitors.

Awareness

Some companies have not yet recognized the importance of personalization. The vast majority of consumers expect personalization, with 76% saying that personalized communications were a decisive factor in their purchases. Seventy-eight percent noted that personalized content influenced their decision to repurchase products and or services from the same company.

Perhaps most importantly, 79% of consumers reported that they would probably only engage with a personalized brand offer that used data from their previous interactions with the company. These findings point to the same conclusion — personalization is essential to any marketing effort. Companies must be aware of their vital role and take meaningful steps to improve customer engagement.

Persona: Marketing Managers

Sophisticated use of marketing manager personas is vital to a company’s personalization efforts. These personas are based on research and purchasing data and represent a company’s ideal customers. This process allows companies to personalize their efforts using a semi-fictional yet highly accurate representative customer.

Of course, these personas are not perfect, but they help attract the right customers and allow for further personalizations to fine-tune brand appeal. This process brings in new business and will enable companies to retain these customers long-term.

Industry: Marketing Personalization Methods

Companies can enhance their personalization marketing in several ways, including:

• Customer Segmentation: This method divides consumers into groups and allows companies to customize their marketing efforts better. Segmentation uses consumer demographics, interests, life stages, website behavior, and where they are in the sales cycle so companies can tailor content specifically to each customer.
• Zero-Party Data: This data is information that consumers voluntarily give to companies. Organizations can collect zero-party data through social media polls, emails, texts, customer reviews, email signup, and registration processes. Since the consumer offers it freely, the data should be accurate.
• Personalized Content: Companies use data gathering and segmentation to deliver customized content — marketing appeals, blogs, and specialized offers for a well-defined consumer group. Personalized content improves customers’ experience and increases engagement and sales.

CRM Systems

Company management may worry that marketing personalization is difficult and expensive. It does not need to be either. Implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system can tackle much of the personalization work efficiently and accurately.

A CRM can manage and track consumer interactions as well as:

• Organize contact information
• Segment customers
• Run sales reports
• Forecast sales
• Facilitate inter-company communication
• Scale sales processes
• Streamline administrative tasks

Companies that want to personalize their marketing should begin by assessing their current level of personalization and then invest in an advanced CRM system. Trying to personalize content without one is a difficult, if not impossible, task. The investment in employee hours alone makes it impractical to personalize marketing without one.

Final Thoughts

You may need to personalize your marketing to improve the customer’s experience and compete in today’s sales environment. Consumers expect to log in to a website, be recognized, and be given product recommendations. When consumers visit a high-end store, they are often greeted by name, given a drink, and led to merchandise pre-chosen for them. Consumers now expect that level of personalization online as well.

Marketing personalization is more than just greeting people by name; it means keeping a record of orders, interactions, and product preferences. Consumers want to find their personal history easily and be steered to new products that align with their preferences. If a company does not deliver a personalized customer experience, it will lose business and potentially harm its reputation. Personalized content is now a business standard.