Increase Your Conversion Using Personalized Marketing Guest Author Photo by João Jesus Customers expect businesses to understand their every need. That’s why marketers take advantage of personalized marketing to communicate better with individual customers and create unique experiences. Properly implementing it into your marketing efforts will grant outstanding results. You can send the most relevant content at the ideal time per customer (prospect, new, and existing). Also, no more unwanted ads reaching uninterested customers. If you want to learn more about achieving the highest website conversion rates using personalized marketing, this article is right for you. What Is Personalized Marketing? 6+ Ways to Increase Your Conversions Using Personalized Marketing 1 Create different types of personalized marketing campaigns by channel I. Email II. Social Media III. eCommerce Sites IV. Website 2 Personalize content based on customers’ preferences A. Based on device type B. Based on the time of visit C. Based on first-time visitors D. Based on the referral source 3. Personalize text content with dynamic keywords 4. Add Personalized Call-To-Actions (CTA) 5. Personalize loyalty programs 6. Communicate in real-time Bonus: Anticipate the customers’ future needs Conclusion What Is Personalized Marketing? Marketing personalization is a strategy to create an engaging interaction between your brand and target customers. Its implementation success relies heavily on the power of data. It’s closely related to eCommerce personalization where a shopper’s experience is tailor-fitted to his needs and preferences. All data you gather is used to create compelling content and user experience. That’s why its process uses a combination of extensive data collection (including heatmaps), analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Together with SEO training, they can uncover the individual customer’s behavior, interests, habits, and more. Of course, not all data you collect is worth using or actionable. To give you a clear picture, here are the key data types you should collect and use: Behavioral data: Information about the prospects and customers’ actions, preferences, and habits Contextual data: Information regarding the customers/prospects’ behavior on the brand’s website, email campaign, or app that provides context Demographic data: Information about a person (name, profession, location, etc.) Firmographic data: Information about the business operations (name, industry, annual revenue, etc.) Taking all the right data into account, you are ready to use them to enhance experiences across all devices. 6+ Ways to Increase Your Conversions Using Personalized Marketing People are exposed to 10,000 brand messages every day. If you are wondering how your campaign can stand out, here are effective ways you can deliver conversion rate optimization (CRO). 1 Create different types of personalized marketing campaigns by channel Customers are all over the internet. So, it’s essential to identify first the marketing channels where your target customers are spending the most time. Once you have identified the channels, you can determine what type of personalized campaigns to run. Here are the popular types of marketing channels you can target, including the campaigns that work: I. Email Source: Snov Email remains the primary communication tool used by everyone on the internet. That’s why it’s not surprising that it can drive more traffic and direct conversions compared to other modes of online platforms. But of course, its success (low bounce rates) will only be delivered once the prospects find the value of your email marketing efforts. Personalizing email campaigns can undoubtedly do wonders because they allow marketers to create and send relevant content based on their customer’s unique needs and interests. You can gather all the information you need through sign-up forms. The sign-up forms are usually embedded into your website, but you can also include them on your blog posts, landing pages, and social media campaigns. Once you have gathered all data, you may select the type of campaign to use. A few of the popular campaigns available are listed as follows: Newsletter Seasonal campaign Cart abandonment campaign Transactional email Sponsorship email Follow-up to a purchase email series Re-engagement campaign (dedicated for inactive subscribers) Promotional copy Infographics You can also personalize your email campaign to announce your new product offer formally. You can present the services offered with their details or showcase their benefits. Voices, an audio creative talent platform is an excellent example of the latter option. Source: Voices Make the most of your personalized email campaigns by adding stylized visuals like images, videos, colors, and fonts. II. Social Media Another platform where people spend the most time is social media sites. As of writing, there are 4.62 billion users and growing. Source: Hootsuite Social media marketing campaigns are ideal if your main objective is to gather customers’ responses or answer their questions fast and effectively. Like email campaigns, personalized social media campaigns require you to create valuable content to drive engagement and increase conversion rates. You can get all the data you need through social analytics and KPIs (key performance indicators). Social analytics provide insights into the platform’s content that creates the most buzz. On the other hand, the social media KPIs allow you to analyze better and understand how well content performs on each platform. Since social media platforms have different purposes, you also need to understand how people interact with each platform. Let’s take media sharing sites, for example. Users engage with these sites through high-quality images and videos. Therefore, it’s recommended to equip your social media campaigns with amazing videos or images relevant to your brand. Creating original images and videos is essential. But if you don’t have ample time to build from scratch, you can use royalty-free image/video. Don’t forget to include custom and relatable messages so your prospects can easily understand your intention. I will take Preset Love, an image enhancement provider as an example. All videos and images they share focus on their mission to speed up editing and make every photo picture perfect. You can also run polls, surveys, or contests to make the campaign interactive. Other types of social media content you can create that guarantee to receive the most social shares are educational and inspirational content. III. eCommerce Sites eCommerce personalization is crucial in keeping your customers loyal and happy to your brand and products. Truth be told, 45% of online shoppers state that they are more likely to engage on eCommerce sites that implement personalization. So, how can you optimize your customers’ personalized shopping experience? There are multiple ways to do it, and as always, it starts with data collection. Compared to the last two personalized marketing campaigns, there are more data points you need to gather and consider. Here are a few of the critical data points you should look out for: On-site interactions (product, checkout, and category page visits) Personal information (name, gender, and location) Paid media Pricing Purchases Site search Traffic (new and returning) Traffic sources (email, referral URL, etc.) Conversion funnel The next stage is organizing the data points and grouping them into smaller segments. You can use Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, and other audience segmentation tools to do the job right. I will take personal data points as an example to give you a clear picture. You can create data segments for names, genders, and locations. Successfully doing so will help you personalize campaigns for the following: Welcome and Thank You messages for every purchase or sign up On-site popups On-site and email product recommendations You can also personalize push notifications, so every user group will receive announcements that suit their interests. Creating customer personas can help you pinpoint who and where your target audience is plus what value propositions to leverage. The persona represents a specific audience segment that shares similar shopping behavior. You can create one based on the data gathered from your site analytics and actual conversation with your customers. If these data aren’t enough, you can conduct surveys and interviews to gather deeper insights. Aside from the campaign’s content, you should also personalize pricing. There are two options available: customize by traffic segments or use an automated pricing tool. IV. Website There are 1.18+ billion websites available on the world wide web today. Therefore, the competition gets tighter as time passes. Personalization helps optimize your website (most especially the homepage) to pique the potential customers’ interest instantly. You can use personalization to localize the content and user interface to match the website visitors’ preferences. Implementing a multilingual eCommerce platform further enhances personalization by breaking down language barriers and catering to a global customer base. Other ways you can use website personalization will depend on the data types you have gathered. There are eight essential data types you should consider: Location Technology (mobile, desktop, tablet, and screen resolution) Traffic sources Third-party data (comes from data management platform) User behavior (clicks, page views, etc.) CRM data Time Web page users often land on These data help you create dynamic content and build a practical layout. Source: Clearbit Unlike the previous, website personalization focuses solely on user experience and relies heavily on custom web developers. The marketing campaigns you can run will vary on the intended digital marketing goal – acquisition, monetization, or engagement. 2 Personalize content based on customers’ preferences High-quality and compelling content is the heart of your marketing campaigns. Personalizing each content can build more trust and develop strong relationships. The good news is content personalization isn’t limited to the type of marketing campaign you run and channels you manage. You can also tailor them using various actionable customer data that your analytics detected like: A. Based on device type Today’s advanced technology allows users to access and engage content on different devices (mobile, desktop, and tablet). Therefore, you need to create content that suits all devices’ unique screen resolution and overall user experience. The slow loading speed can adversely impact users’ engagement with your content. It’s recommended to optimize your images and videos, minimize redirects, and eliminate unnecessary plugins. B. Based on the time of visit Identifying the exact time of audience visits provides many opportunities for your content. One good example is when you’re running limited-time offers. As your audience accesses the content, you can detect if their exact time setting is close to the time of your offer. If so, you can increase the sense of urgency to engage them to participate. You can even add discounts and other forms of incentives to increase the conversion. C. Based on first-time visitors Making a first impression that lasts is achievable but challenging. One effective way to do it is personalizing the content in a way you can educate first-time visitors about the business and brand. You can use the standard text form or video popups to make it more appealing. Source: Poptin Banners are ideal for highlighting your best-selling products. If you want to know more about first-time visitors, you can conduct surveys to understand their interests and intent. Also, you can collect their email addresses through an online form. D. Based on the referral source People discover a brand in different ways. They may encounter it on ads, recommendations of social influencers, case studies, or testimonials and social proof from other websites. If you’re thinking of creating one content for all, I suggest you stop. You must personalize your content and campaign based on the referral source for consistency. Let’s say someone clicks the link for letterpress stamp fonts on an influencer’s social media. The content on the landing page should be designed solely for the said influencer’s audience. 3. Personalize text content with dynamic keywords The dynamic keyword is the element you can add to your text content to address users individually. It’s in the form of a code where you must include a specific user’s attribute. The code will automatically be replaced with the most appropriate value when the condition is met. A few of the attributes you can add are listed as follows: Personal information Geolocation In-site, email, and shopping activities details Both Google and Bing offer dynamic keyword insertion (DKI). But I will focus more on Google DKI to show how it works. The snippet of code you need to insert looks like this: {KeyWord:Chocolate}. When the customers look for a search term relevant to your dynamic keyword (milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, etc.), Google Ads will instantly replace the code into your content. You can use marketing automation tools to save time in implementation. It’s also recommended to create a unique landing page for each rather than giving a generic page. 4. Add Personalized Call-To-Actions (CTA) CTAs are made to do one job – keep visitors engaged in your brand or website. It’s usually in the form of a hyperlink or button and contains an action phrase to lead the visitor to take the next step. You can add it to online channels, marketing campaigns, and content. The action phrase is the key to its success. Ensure to create short, precise, and actionable text with a sense of urgency. The acceptable length is between five to seven words. Placement also holds a vital role in its efficacy. It would be best if you placed it to a section with high visibility, such as: Top portion of the webpage End of the blog post (middle section for a long-formed blog post) Sidebar Above the fold Welcome popup message You can use A/B testing to test CTA buttons before publishing them live. You can also measure its performance using analytics. The data points you should look at are click-through rate, clicks to submission, and views to submission. 5. Personalize loyalty programs A customer loyalty program is another marketing strategy that you can personalize to encourage customers to return. It’s usually offered to customers so they will feel comfortable sharing their purchasing habits. Some of the perks you can provide are coupons, discounts, and other limited-time promotions. You can apply personalization in the registration process. Save your visitors’ time by replacing lengthy processes with a one-page signup form. You should also personalize a centralized page to track their rewards history quickly. 6. Communicate in real-time Human interaction is the most effective way to convince a prospect to convert into a customer. That’s why most consumers stay loyal to brands that offer reliable live chat and phone support. You can apply personalization by popping a welcoming message when the visitor has landed on your website. Provide them with recommendations on topics and product offers that they can access inside the site. You can also push an online form to let them join as a subscriber or ask for feedback to improve your content. Offering multilingual support is well-appreciated to ensure that all visitors (no matter what language they speak) can understand your content. Bonus: Anticipate the customers’ future needs Personalized marketing doesn’t stop when you finally satisfy your customers’ expectations and needs. It’s continuous work to ensure your campaigns quickly adapt to the ever-changing customers’ needs. Now that you know and understand all customers’ vital information, habits, and behavior, you have the advantage of predicting what’s next to come. Let’s take customers who purchased a car, for example. You can create various campaigns to offer them insurances, maintenance services, add-ons (accessories), and other products/services that they find valuable. Conclusion Conversion rate optimization for more sales is only a few of the many benefits of well-implemented marketing personalization. It isn’t to achieve, so creating an effective personalized marketing strategy is necessary to streamline the process. Since personalization’s success relies heavily on good data, you need to use robust analytics tools (web and social) to reveal crucial metrics and trends. It’s ideal to choose tools with advanced algorithms to refine your personalization. You can collect and track as much customer information as you need, but make sure to respect their privacy. The moment you show how much you care about their privacy especially due care of their contact information, the more you will build trust. Continuous optimization and testing of your campaigns are also vital. Here, you can identify all areas that can help you build more interest, engagement, and loyalty. Other tools you can use to maximize your marketing personalization are data management platforms (DPM) and customer relationship management software (CRM). Author Bio Burkhard Berger is the founder of Novum™. Follow Burkhard on his journey from $0 to $100,000 per month. He’s sharing everything he learned in his income reports on Novum™ so you can pick up on his mistakes and wins.