10 personalization hacks that will knock out your competitors
We all love it when someone takes care of us, is interested, and gives us attention. This feeling can be addictive. We like to be special to someone. And we should really have the same approach to our customers.
Personalization is old news, it’s true. It’s been a buzzword in marketing for the last few years. But, the pandemic has really upped the ante on the need for e-commerce retailers to adopt personalization strategies.
And, with rapid tech advances, personalization just keeps getting more personal. Today’s customers want to be seen as individuals with individual needs. They do not want to waste time on content that is not relevant and interesting to them.
The last couple of years have caused a rapid shift in how we shop. Out of necessity, we’ve become more comfortable online. This has sparked businesses to focus their resources on building or improving online environments.
Consulting company Mckinsey coined the term ‘The Quickening’ to describe this time. While, admittedly, it doubles as a great title for a sci-fi film, it refers to the fact that COVID-19 has caused our consumer habits to leap forward in what should’ve taken a decade, in a mere few months.
So it’s up to us marketers and sellers to give customers what they want and make their purchases on e-commerce more enjoyable and offer more relevant experiences. But how to do that?
We have created some tips for you:
1. Personalize your welcome page!
Your welcome page is one of the first impressions the customer will have of you and the experience you can offer. If it is incomprehensible or uninteresting for the customer, it may also be the last impression.
You can personalize pages such as the welcome page to create unique experiences, CTAs, and messages for every unique visitor. And, you can do this regardless of the Content Management System (CMS) you’ve built your site with.
You can personalize just about everything on a landing page, as long as you have access to that information/data. Here’s a list of some of the elements you can consider:
- Visitor’s name. If junk mail companies with no budgets can do it, so can you.
- Company name. You can use account-based marketing tactics here.
- Company size. If you have a robust profile of the company the customer works for, your landing page could lead with messaging like, “Mid-size agencies swear by our tools.”
- Visitor’s job title or position. What better way to flatter someone than by calling out their status? Speak directly to the decision-makers with messaging like, “See why marketing managers […]”
- Device and browser-designed landing pages.
- Messaging based on ads they clicked on.
Where to get this data? Custimy and our Customer Data Platform can be a simple answer. Our CDP collects, consolidates, and analyzes data from different sources and provides you with data insights about your customers that you need to create the coolest, most personalized experience.
2. Tailor an e-mail ad to a specific segment of your customers
When sending offers by e-mail, it is important you don’t overwhelm your customers with several irrelevant offers in a row – you know, spam them or make offers that are not interesting to them.
If you know your customers well, you can divide them into several segments based on similar characteristics or similar customer behavior. And based on these groups, you can create offers personalized for each customer segment, which can be sent by mail.
This way, there is a much better chance that the customer will get an offer that interests them, and they will not be overwhelmed or annoyed by content that is irrelevant to them.
3. Personalize purchase-related e-mails
One of the ways to show your interest to the customer is to personalize e-mails. If the purchase is a repetitive process (for example, buying certain food or dog food), you can offer him a subscription to this product or a 10% discount by e-mail. Or send suggestions to purchase the specific to replenish supplies or other items that are related, enhance, or help the product they already buy.
After the customer makes a purchase, let him know immediately what is happening with his order. When will the order be shipped, which transport service will deliver it and what is the expected delivery date? All this information creates a trustworthy feeling and improves the relationship.
Another way to show interest in a particular customer by e-mail is to ask for feedback/a review. This way you can also get valuable information on how to improve your service/product next time, which is probably the most important information to receive from a customer if you want to retain them.
4. The right timing and the right channel are the keys to success
In addition to the content you want to communicate to your target audience, the channel you want to communicate on and timing are also important.
If you have refined customer segments and understand their behavior and preferred channels, you can easily target customers. For example, if your target customer is a girl, aged 13-16, who is interested in fashion initially your most successful way to reach her will probably be through Instagram or TikTok.
But instead of guessing or looking at public statistics, you can just look at your Customer Data Platform (CDP) and see where they prefer to communicate with you. This saves you time and ad-spend, as you focus your marketing efforts on the channels that actually will convert them.
Another question you should know the answer to is ‘when?’.
When you contact your customer, it can play a crucial role in them responding to your offer. Let’s say some days when you’re really busy you’re not even in the mood to think about new shoes.
But if your customer is a coffee lover who checks their e-mail at work on a Monday morning, and they come across a great coffee offer from you, they will probably start to think about whether or not they should go get that second cup.
5. Address the customer by name
Does that sound too simple? Sometimes the simplest things work the best!
Whether it is on your website, e-mail, or something else – always address your customer by name. It gives them a more positive and friendly impression of you, improves your relationship with them, and gives the customer the feeling that they are not just a number for you, but an actual individual – a real person!
6. Use chatbots
A chatbot allows you to interact with a customer in real-time. Most Chatbots today are fully automated, which means they can provide the customer with a feeling of being helped, seen, heard, and having a real conversation without any need for your employee. This can have a positive effect on your customer relationship.
Through a chatbot conversation, it is possible for you to allow the customer to order products, check the status of their order, or get advice and links on how to navigate the site.
7. What could be more personal than your own wish list?
How many times did it happen that you liked something you found on a webshop – a pair of expensive shoes, a bag, or a computer gadget, but you needed time to rethink if you should buy it?
If you know that feeling chances are that your customers do as well, which is why it is good to allow your customers to create a wishlist/shopping list on your website. Here, customers can put the item aside and easily return it to them after thinking about making a purchase + you can remind them about their saved item in their mail – you know … as an extra service to them.
A special category is lists created for repurchases. This category mainly concerns sellers of grocery goods or other daily products like razors or similar. In this case, it is good to provide the customer with a list of products they have already purchased and thus make it easier for them to reorder them by pre-creating a shopping list. This can also turn into a subscription-based service.
8. How to personalize advertising? Retargeting!
“97% of people who visit your site for the first time leave without buying anything”
But there’s something you can do about it. Retargeting advertising! Simply put, to a customer (who has already visited your site) it will display the ad for your site over and over again when they visit other sites or social media.
The most commonly used tools for this method of advertising are Google Ads, Facebook retargeting, LinkedIn Ads, and other retargeting advertising platforms. With these tools, you can use data (from your customer visiting) to tailor the ads of the specific product on relevant social media to your target group.
Expose the customer to a relevant offer by creating ads for products they already have shown that they are interested in or by retargeting them with ads they have engaged with before.
In this way, it also builds awareness of your brand among a specific target customer. It is very important when the customer is making a purchase decision.
9. Display similar and related products on your e-shop
If visitors on your webshop are looking for a specific product, it is good to use this information and their interest as effectively as possible, and offer them products that are similar or related to their interests/needs.
From the customer’s point of view: When buying a new phone, everyone is happy to receive an offer of covers that fit this phone. This saves them time, is convenient, and is perceived as a service to the customer.
And I guess that could be considered a win-win situation?
You can use the Customer Data Platform to obtain this information about your customers. A CDP collects first-party data directly from customers and tracks their steps on your website and back.
10. Let customers know if you care
During holidays, people are stress-free and open to indulging and enjoying life. Show them your interest and build a relationship by sending a holiday greeting.
You can also send congratulations on birthdays or other events to build a more personal relationship with the customer. And if you want to please the customer, you can even add a discount to the product, which they have added to their wishlist on your webshop a week ago.
You can use their saved items or recently purchased items as an indicator of their lifecycle as well – are they getting married, moving, having a baby, etc. and that can help you tailor your messages and your relationship-building comms.
Let us know on our social media if you found anything interesting in this post, or book a demo today and see the power of a CDP
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