How Do I Get Started With Personalization in Marketing?

Maximize customer engagement and loyalty with effective personalization strategies. Discover why 80% of consumers prefer brands that offer a personalized experience and how you can start improving your conversions and retention today.
Morgan Hugoboom
7 March 2024
Blog
5
Comment débuter avec la personnalisation dans le marketing?

Today’s consumer enjoys a curated experience across their social media feed, search engine results, and most other aspects of their digital life. 

Now, they expect the same level of personalization from brands. They’ll go to brands that offer it – and they’ll leave the ones that don’t.

According to reports:

  • 80% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands offering a personalized experience
  • 72% of customers say they will only engage with personalized messaging
  • 62% of consumers will stop buying from a business with poor personalization

If you’re wondering, “But how do I get started with personalization in marketing? And what is it?” – you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we’ll review everything you need to know about marketing personalization. It is one of the most impactful – and fastest-growing – strategies for marketers today. Let’s make sure your team is harnessing its full potential.

What is personalization in marketing?

Personalization is targeted, customized messaging or content that provides a tailored experience throughout the customer journey. 

With personalization, marketers collect customer data to decide what messaging will be most effective. They examine factors like customer behavior, stage in the funnel, preferences, and more. Teams then use this data to personalize their marketing efforts, ensuring customers receive the right messaging at the right time.

Personalization requires a strong understanding of customer behaviors, demographics, and needs – but the results are worth the effort. According to Think with Google, “90% of leading marketers say personalization significantly contributes to business profitability.”

What are the benefits of personalization?

Personalization has become a staple for marketers for good reason: it enhances conversions and reduces customer churn, increases brand loyalty, and yields a higher customer lifetime value (CLV).

In short: personalization in marketing helps a brand’s bottom line.

Benefits of personalized content include:

  • Increased customer engagement
  • Stronger relationships
  • Brand loyalty + awareness
  • Increased customer lifetime value (CLV)
  • Higher sales, repeat purchases, and upselling

By getting started with personalization, brands can also reap the benefits of relationship marketing. In this similar (and powerful) marketing strategy, brands use personalization to foster deeper, long-term relationships with their customers. By continuing the relationship, brands ensure their initial investment in customer acquisition pays dividends long into the future with more sales, referral marketing, positive brand awareness, and a higher ROI.

Want to know more about relationship marketing – and how it can transform your business?

Check out our guide to relationship marketing: what it is and why you need it.

How do I get started with personalization?

Not sure how to get started with personalization? Getting started will depend on factors like your marketing capabilities, availability of customer data, touchpoints and channels, and more. Below is a breakdown of the overall process so you can better understand how to implement personalization in your business.

Invest in your team (and your MarTech)

Take stock of your current team and analyze its capabilities. Do you have the professionals you need to collect customer data, create content, and deploy an omnichannel personalized experience? Can you invest in marketing technology (MarTech) to automate any of this and reduce the burden on your professionals? Do you have the MarTech tools needed to collect customer data, analyze it, and track strategy performance? For example, marketing or email automation can enhance marketing performance with almost no effort from your teams. 

Be realistic about your capabilities and create goals relative to what your team (and your tech) can support.

Collect customer data

Customer data informs the strategy behind personalization. Without understanding the customer, teams can’t understand how to tailor their messaging. By collecting data such as customer behavior, interests, and demographics, brands can deliver the content customers need when they need it. 

When collecting data, it’s important to remain compliant with data security and privacy regulations. Tools like customer data platforms (CDP) offer streamlined data collection while also enabling compliance at regional, national, and international levels.

Segment your audience

Now that you understand the nuances of your customer base, it’s time to segment your audience. What are the different groups within your customer base? For example, you might create a segment based on how customers interact with your brand: does one prefer social media while another prefers in-store? Identify a few key groups you’d like to target first – these will be the segments you create a personalized experience for later.

Examples of customer segments include:

  1. Stage in the customer journey
  2. Stage in the sales funnel
  3. Geographic location
  4. Customer persona
  5. Needs or pain points
  6. Shopping preferences (online, mobile, in-person)
  7. Channel preferences (where are they most responsive)

Here’s how to use segmentation to maximize the ROI of your email marketing strategy.

Plan a strategy and begin creating content

Map the customer journey for each segment. Identify which touchpoints and which channels are most likely to see engagement. What does the customer need at each touchpoint? What is the goal of each interaction? 

After completing the customer journey mapping for each persona or segment, create content and messaging tailored to each of those unique customer journeys. Ask yourself questions like:

  • What voice will resonate with that audience?
  • How can you meet the customer where they are at that stage in the journey?
  • How will the messaging at the same touchpoint differ across channels?

Personalizing your marketing ensures customers receive relevant, valued content from your brand – uniquely targeted to maximize performance.

Monitor your data and update the strategy

You’ve launched your new personalization strategy. Now, it’s time to monitor its performance. 

Begin by benchmarking your original metrics at the start of your new strategy. Then, continue collecting customer data and performance metrics. Identify which efforts yield results and which need updates. 

Your personalization strategy will continue to evolve. Stay responsive to the trends and update your strategy as needed. Customer needs and behaviors will change, your capabilities will grow, and adapting to those changes will lead to continued success. 

Want to maximize conversions and boost email performance?

Get Your Free Personalization Analysis! Discover how our exclusive personalization matrix can transform your email customer engagement.

What are examples of personalization in marketing?

Personalization can be implemented at whatever scale your business can support. It can be as simple as including a subscriber’s first name on your email subject lines, or as complex as developing an entirely different customer journey across multiple channels for a variety of segments.

Below are examples of personalization for your business:

Social media

Interact directly with your customers through comments, likes, messages, and shares – both on your content and theirs.

Email personalization

Email still has one of the highest ROIs for marketing channels, meaning that even small measures can yield results. You can include your recipient’s name at the beginning of each email or customize messaging by implementing email journeys.

Personalized thank you pages

After a customer buys something, send them a thank you email or a thank you page that includes their name. To maximize personalization and opportunities for ongoing connection, you can also include a bonus like a link to a relevant blog post, a related product, a discount, or a promotional offer.

Personalized homepage (or landing page) banner

For repeat customers or visitors, create a responsive website that features a customer’s name in the banner. You can work this throughout the storefront, offering a personalized touch that helps customers feel valued by your brand.

Recommended products

This personalization strategy is attainable for businesses at any size. Large corporations can upsell products or services based on client purchase history and behavior. A small coffee shop can share monthly recommendations of drinks and products based on the customer’s usual favorites.

Brands need to personalize their marketing – or miss out

In today’s digital age, personalization has become more attainable. As a result, more customers expect a personalized experience – and will leave a brand if they don’t receive one. By getting started with personalization, businesses can maximize their marketing ROI, reduce customer churn, and improve their bottom line. 

Find out how your company can benefit from Dialog Insight.

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