A quick guide to understanding the long-term benefits of personalization in digital marketing.
As humans, we interact with our environment in different ways especially while consuming the gargantuan load of information we are exposed to. When it comes to marketing, every consumer has different needs and preferences which collectively form their ‘consumer behavior’. In simpler words, while you prefer to watch thrillers, your friend might averse to them and prefer historic documentaries instead, and so on. The recommendations you get on your audio-visual apps are based on all the stuff that you’ve been watching or listening to, on them. This is personalization described in a nutshell. But there’s much more to it than just apps picking out recommendations for you.
Several brands like yours are trying to win the attention of consumers every single minute. If you want to expand your consumer base, stand out and grow your business, personalization is of supreme importance. But, addressing the elephant in the room, how do you cut through the fat and get noticed? Read on as we decipher this puzzle for you.
Why Should You Personalize Consumer Experience?
There’s a whole science behind personalization. It is a result of a thorough analysis of consumer data collated from browsing hindsight which is then used to create tailor-made digital experiences for the consumer.
If you leave out all that technical jargon, eventually, your consumers are human beings. And human beings have needs and emotions which make them want their life to be a certain way. Personalization makes them identify that you care about their preferences. So, if you understand your consumer’s emotions and communicate with them in a way that strikes the right chord with them, you have aced personalization and successfully caught your consumer’s attention.
How To Incorporate Personalization While Marketing
Including personalization in your marketing strategy may sound like a cakewalk but with the innumerable competitors around you, it can be quite the opposite. Primarily, you need to have a clear picture of what you intend to communicate to your target groups - like your brand story and its purpose.
The easiest way to understand and cultivate personalization is by practicing the 3 ‘C’s of this strategy: connect, contain and convert. Based on consumer data of your target audience, you need to first connect with them in a language that’s familiar to them; then, you need to contain them by engaging them in your content and, eventually, convert them into customers.
Personalization needs to be campaign-specific. Your generic brand targets cannot be the same for every campaign you run. So, revise this every time you plan a new campaign.
Difference Between Personalization and Customization
Owing to their similar ultimate goal which is reaching target consumers, personalization is often confused with customization. The primary difference is that personalization is done by a third entity (like your brand) for its consumer. Customization, on the other hand, is carried out by the consumer. A simple example is the ads you are shown on social media platforms. While personalization is the fact that you are getting that particular ad in your feed, customization is when you choose to ‘hide’ that ad and select your reason to do so.
Over the years, personalization has grown to be the backbone of digital marketing. The rise of social media marketing in the late 2000s established the fact that consumers are always craving that emotional connection even while surfing the Internet on a normal day. So, to create meaningful content that leaves a lasting impression on your consumer, you need to include personalization in your marketing strategy.