One marketing trend that is making all the buzz in the market is personalization.
Let’s just say, you are in a party with dozens of people chattering around you. You can easily blur out those conversations as some background noise. But as soon as someone calls out your name, it piques your interest, and you suddenly look interested in that specific conversation.
That’s what personalization in marketing precisely about. By personalizing your customer experience, you can grab their attention. According to a study, 96% of digital marketers reported that personalization has helped them improve rapport with their customers. They say that they have improved overall customer experience by 61% with the help of personalization.
So you must be wondering, how does personalization help exactly? Let me tell you how.
● Personalization Drives Impulse Purchases and Increases Revenue
A survey shows that 49% of shoppers purchased items products they did not intend to after they received a personalized recommendation from the brand they have previously done business with. ‘
Not only that, in fact, 40% of consumers also buy a costlier item than originally planned after receiving a personalized experience.
● Personalization Leads to Fewer Returns
Another advantage of personalization is that it leads to fewer returns. Customers are more satisfied with a personalized experience. 85% of impulse buyers were happy with their buying experience. And, only 5% of them actually returned the products they reported being unhappy with.
● Personalization Has Significant Positive Effects
After receiving a personalized experience, 44% of consumers say that they will be likely to make a repeat purchase from the same brand. It also works as a great word of mouth marketing, as 39% reported that they would recommend the brand to their family and friends, and 32% will leave a positive review for the brand.
Clearly, personalization is a winning strategy. If you are still not delivering a personalized experience, it is time to do so. Gone are the days when ‘one-size-fits-all’ mantra worked in business marketing. Knowing beforehand what your customer wants and studying about their buying behavior can be an advantage for you while dealing with your customers. It can solidify their decision to do business with you.
But, half of the digital marketer surveyed claimed that the industry isn’t getting personalization right. Are you delivering the personalization right?
Here’s how you can personalize your customer experience and show you know them.
How to Personalize Your Customer Experience
1. Take Advantage of Automation
Sending out personalized messages to your customers at the right time is exactly what you need to wow your customers. It could be a welcome email, cart-abandonment reminder, a we-miss-you message, or a thank you email, all these can keep your customer engaged.
Automating your marketing efforts combined with personalization, can boost your sales and increase your customer satisfaction. You can easily keep track of your customer’s activities and buying behavior with the help of a CRM software.
CRM such as Pipedrive helps you align the automation with your customer journey to let you create a personalized experience for your customers. By streamlining your workflow, you can keep track of when and what emails or messages are being sent out.
2. Segmentation Is the Key
In today’s times, customers are empowered with a number of choices. Plus, they have vast knowledge available at just a click of the mouse, and they are multi-channel. They automatically start expecting brands to provide them with curated content that speaks directly about them and their needs.
On average, a person is bombarded with 1,700 banner ads per month, and the vast majority of emails sent are spam. If a brand wants to retain their customers, they need to provide a great customer experience through personalized content.
Segmenting your audience and sending out personalized emails to them can help you drive more customers. Personalization and segmentation go hand-by-hand. Through segmentation, you can send out relevant and useful content to your consumers and remove friction from the buyer’s journey.
A study shows that segmented emails have more advantages than non-segmented campaigns. Segmented emails showed the following stats:
- 3% more opens
- 7% fewer bounces
- 101% more clicks
- 4% fewer unsubscribes
Best CRMs like Pipeline collects and store information about your customers in an organized manner. You can use the data to segment them based on preferences, job titles, demographics, locations, and buying history. The more information you have on your customers, the more successful your segmentation will be.
3. Share Personalized Recommendations
Many retailers and e-commerce stores are already offering personalized recommendations. The best example is Netflix and Amazon. Netflix sends out new series recommendations to watch to its users based on their previous choices. Or, that of Amazon who targets their customers with ‘related items’ or ‘things you might like’ based on their purchase or search history. They even show you items that are commonly purchased together and what other customers are buying.
A survey has shown that 63% of consumers surveyed are interested in personalized recommendations.
Personalized recommendations not only proves that you know your customer, but they are more likely to do business with you again. Software like Pipeline CRM helps you collect information about your customers. You can use your customer’s purchase history, click-through, or search history to pull the data you need.
You are providing value to your customers, showing them items they might like but might not have seen it yet. And by offering discounts or free shipping, you can make the recommendation hard-to-resist for your customer.
4. Let Customers Be a Part of the Personalization Process
Another strategy to create a personalized experience for your customers is by making it an interactive process.
Even if your customer doesn’t have a profile with your business, you can still get more information from them to create personalized content. For instance, an online store such as Nykaa offers a ‘Try it On’ feature, which allows people to virtually try on beauty products before buying. How?
The brand lets them choose their skin type and virtually apply the product. It gives them an idea of how the product would look on them, and they can make a quick decision.
You can then send out recommendations based on their choices.
5. Create a Personal Relationship With Your Customer
For small business owners, it’s easy for them to establish a personal relationship with their customers. They see their customers on a regular basis. But if you are a big e-commerce giant or global brand, it’s not the same. However, you can create a personal relationship based on how you communicate with them.
It’s easy to hide behind your brand, whether it’s through social media accounts or company email. But your customers want to have a human touch and not just interact with lifeless chatbots.
For starters, you don’t need to be formal all the time. You can use your name in your email bylines. Your email should be coming from your [email protected] and not from some non-personalized addresses. Also, try to keep the name consistent so that the subscribers start recognizing your company’s representative.
Besides, you can personalize their experience on social media by responding to their comments or messages with a candid response. Don’t just type some corporate copy-paste messages.
Conclusion
When you personalize your customer experience, it leaves your customers excited about your brand, and they are more likely to come back to you. It all starts with collecting the right information and data about your audience. You need to have a detailed understanding of who they are, what they want, and why they want it.
The best tool is to use document management software and CRM software to collect and store information. Top CRMs even include email marketing metrics, social media insights, and other survey tools to help you gather everything you need to know. And once you have all the required information, you can start targeting your customers with calls-to-action messages.
Author bio
Himanshu Singh is a Marketing Specialist at SoftwareSuggest, He is well versed in software platforms like eCommerce platforms, project management, invoicing software. He is also interested in domains like Machine Learning and Semiconductors. In his spare time he enjoys Guitar, Badminton, and Photography.
|