Marketing uses a variety of strategies which purpose is to help companies attract as many customers as possible. The role of most of these strategies is also connected with building strong relationships with customers. Today, we’re going to show you one of the most effective customer satisfaction strategies – marketing personalization. What is personalization? And how can you use it in your business? Let’s find out.
The term personalization itself is used widely, even in everyday situations; take, for example, your best friend’s birthday. While preparing a gift, you would like to make it special – and special means aligned with your friend’s interests, passions, or dreams. In other words, you want to give them a personalized gift. Even though the meaning of personalization may seem obvious, there are a few things worth clearing out. In this article, we would like to uncover this concept by discussing its definition, benefits, and examples.
What is personalization?
Marketing personalization is a process of gathering customer data (especially about customer behavior) and, based on that input, tailoring the information which the company wants to convey to its customers. Personalized marketing is based on understanding and fulfilling customer preferences, needs, and expectations (that’s how customer segments are created). This way, it is possible to create a message which will be a perfect fit for each and every person involved in the company’s services.
Marketing personalization is a highly important and popular technique that helps you to attract and keep as many customers as possible. We all want and desire to be noticed and understood, and this is exactly what personalized content shows us – attention to individuals visiting your web page.
There are two most common types of personalization used in marketing: one-to-one personalization and segmentation.
The first one is also called “individualization”, and it is the type that is usually associated with the personalization term. In short, it takes into account individual customers, their needs, and preferences and leverages customer data to craft a personalized message.
Segmentation, on the other hand, takes into account groups of customers identified from a bigger audience. The message is not addressed to individuals, then; rather, there is a personalized message for a specific group (customer segment). The best example here would be regular customers who get special information tailored only to their experience. This method, however, can be successful only if the targeted segments are big enough to produce satisfying outcomes.
Why is personalization important?
Personalized experiences seem to be important both for customers and marketers. There are many reasons for which companies introduce personalized messages; the most crucial, however, is the fact that customers nowadays expect to be recognized and gratified for being a loyal part of a brand. Many surveys have been conducted, and all of them present the same results: The more the company is able to notice and identify a particular customer, the higher the chance that the given customer will continue using their services. Of course, it is not the only reason why personalization has become such a successful marketing technique. What else does it involve?
It helps your business thrive. When the customer notices well-tailored messages and feedback, they are more likely to come back and use the company’s services again. That is why it is important to pay attention to the experience your customers encounter while cooperating with your company. One of the biggest names now, such as Netflix or Spotify, owes their success mostly to their personalized playlists. To be fair, the users of these platforms demand personalized content on the basis of which they can find another, well-tailored one.
Personalization vs. customization
Both personalization and customization involve modifications within a customer’s experience. There is, however, a very important difference between these two approaches.
As stated before, personalization includes gathering information about a specific customer. And on this basis, the company proposes specially tailored messages. This way, the customer does not have a direct influence on the content and suggestions that they receive.
With customization, on the other hand, it is the customer who is in charge of modifying the content according to their needs and preferences. While shopping online, for instance, customers receive both personalized and customized content – ads and filtered products, respectively.
Personalization examples
There are many ways in which companies can convey their personalized messages. Mostly, they involve machine learning algorithms that gather information about customer experiences, preferences, likes, but also about information related to the location or online activity. All of this can help companies create as much personalized content as possible. Here are a few most popular personalization methods:
- E-mail personalization
- Smart product recommendations
- Advertisements based on customer data
Each of them can have its own benefits; that is why your company needs to recognize your customers’ needs in order to prepare the best, most satisfying, and well-tailored content.