What is MARKETING PERSONALIZATION?
Marketing personalization is the process of using customer data to deliver individually targeted brand messages. Consumers have now come to expect personalized marketing experiences in exchange for the personal information they share on the web and with companies. Because there is exponentially more data available for companies to personalize their marketing with, it’s far more complicated than putting ‘Hi [first name]’ in email greetings. Effectively planned and executed personalization can help increase engagement and improve satisfaction by delivering contextually relevant and personalized customer experiences in real-time.
It’s important to use every piece of data possible to get insights about your customers - you want to show that you truly know them and what they need from your brand. When effective personalized marketing is in place, each customer has a designated place in your system where their entire history with your brand lives - and that information allows you to target them at the right times and maximize the value of your marketing efforts.
How Do I Utilize Marketing Personalization Effectively?
It's okay to start with baby steps when it comes to marketing personalization. You have to crawl before you can walk. Start with little wins, like email personalization, to give your customers a more inviting experience of your brand. Then, you can tie actions customers take in person into digital messaging.
For example, when someone buys an item via your online store, or even places something in their cart but doesn’t purchase it, you could follow that action up with an SMS or email welcoming them to your company’s e-commerce platform. Eventually, you'll develop omnichannel capabilities, integrating each customer's experience with your brand across platforms so that each interaction enriches their buying journey.
Why Digital Marketing Personalization Matters
Your customers want relevant content. No one likes being sold items or services that don't apply to them. What's more, when they put items in their cart but abandon them (a phenomenon appropriately named cart abandonment), personalized marketing will retarget customers and remind them of things they may have meant to purchase but didn't follow through with.
If you’re successful, you will be able to predict the next steps a customer will take with your brand. You'll build a deeper relationship with your customers, bring them further into your brand experience, and, consequently, drive sales.
Marketing Personalization Tools and Technology
It's important to understand all the touchpoints of your customer's journey with your brand, from prospect to customer. To do that, you need to understand all of the tools and analytics that go into mapping that journey, what information they gather and how it’s gathered, and how all of the tools relate to one another. Your personalized marketing strategy will be a combination of different types of tools, such as a customer data platform, an email marketing platform, and an analytics platform all working in synchronization to provide you with a full picture of your customer’s needs, wants, and histories. And a good CDP (customer data platform) is an invaluable tool you can integrate into your personalized marketing strategy.
Download Our Full Guide to Marketing Personalization
Ready to get to know your customer inside and out? You may think that there’s so much to learn when it comes to personalized marketing. If you’re stuck or don’t even know where to start, Engine Room is here to help. Click below to download our full guide to personalized marketing.
More questions about customer data platforms? You can find more information about this topic (and many others) on Engine Room’s website here.
