The ultimate challenge facing marketers today is understanding how to reach their target audience in a timely, relevant and accurate way. Consumers are constantly bombarded with advertising messages both online and offline, so what makes you any different? Ticking those boxes of being timely, relevant and accurate is what will set you apart and break through the clutter.
So how might this be achieved? Personalisation.
What is personalisation?
Personalisation is a marketing strategy where businesses use audience analysis and data to deliver more relevant messages to their target audience. Put into simple terms, this means that businesses collect and process information on their audiences’ interests, demographics, and behaviours to create more relevant content that provides extra value.
As an internet user, you will have witnessed personalised content multiple times. Think about all the times Netflix served you with their “Recommended for you” section. The shows included in this are curated based on your viewing history, which enables Netflix to display other shows they believe you’re likely to enjoy.
Why does it matter?
Personalised content and tailored recommendations are no longer just nice-to-have, they are now an absolute must-have to maintain the interest of consumers. Today’s customers want brands to view them as distinct individuals with unique characteristics and preferences, as opposed to faceless consumers, addressed all under the one umbrella. Customers’ desires to be recognised by brands on an individual level largely impact their purchase decisions and can sway potential customers to become buyers.
Personalised marketing can also:
– Boost your social media engagement – personalised content is more meaningful, which is why more users interact with it. eMarketer’s research revealed that 56% of CMOs experienced higher response and engagement rates on personalised content, while 47% declared the interactions they gained were more timely and relevant. A high volume of interactions is critical to surfacing in the news feed organically, especially on Facebook.
– Improve your Facebook relevance score and ad costs – tailored messages are relevant to your target audience. That’s why they can generate more positive feedback and receive a better Facebook relevance score grade, which can decrease the cost of your Facebook advertising activities.
– Generate more leads and conversions – more people will interact with your content if it’s personalised, meaning there’s a bigger chance to convert them. This can greatly increase your social media ROI and help you achieve your marketing objectives.
– Strengthen customer loyalty and brand affinity – an audience served with personalised messages feels recognised and cared for by a brand. As a result, they become more loyal and approving of a business.
– Increase brand awareness – once users develop a connection to your brand, they will be more eager to spread the word about you among their personal networks. And with 92% of consumers believing recommendations from friends and family over advertising, you can’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing!
Sign me up! Where do I start?
To begin, you need to learn everything you can about your target audience and break them down into separate buyer personas. You’ll need to find out their; demographics, social media likes and interests, social media activities, page affinities and followed influencers. This will help to personalise communications more effectively.
Once you’ve established the buyer personas, it’s important to see where each of them sit in the customer journey. Typically, the customer journey has three stages: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Each are different in terms of how familiar users are with your brand and how ready they are to buy – which is why you need to create diverse personalised content.
The Customer Journey:
– Awareness: customers don’t know your brand that well and are just searching for a product that would best fit their needs. This is the time to think about how you can grasp users’ attention and make them want to come back.
– Consideration: you want customers to consider buying something from your business. You should convince them you’re the right choice by offering helpful content that addresses users’ pain points.
– Conversation: you want to convert users who are most ready to buy. Some of them might need an extra push, though, and this is where highly personalized content comes into play. Because purchases usually take place on a website, you can leverage a whole range of individualized messages – from pop-up coupons with your followers’ names to personalised thank you pages.
Targeting potential and existing customers with personalised content at each stage here creates not only relevant content, but meaningful interactions too. The customers of today value brands that understand them enough to make tailored suggestions and show them products or services of relevance. By embracing personalised marketing, you can answer this need and generate tangible value for your business. And the best part? The market still hasn’t fully tapped into personalisation, which means it’s a perfect time for you to get a head start!
Charles Tidswell is Vice President of JAPAC at Socialbakers.
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