From Good to Great: Businesses using Personalization to Increase Sales — SETALKS
That’s the reason, why you see businesses using personalization in email campaigns.
Whenever a brand uses your name to address you, it feels like they are trying to develop a personal bond. You instantly establish an unknown connection with the brand and its values. The feeling of addressed directly by your name is irreplaceable.
Frequently known as personalization, it can be a great tool to engage a customer and help them establish a sweet spot with the brand.
For decades, marketers and advertisers have been using personalization in emails and cold calls. But just a few years back websites started using advanced technology to predict the user’s intent and
And now for some stats:
- 79% of the consumers say that they will likely engage with an email that is personalized for them.
- By 2020 consumers expect that companies will make relevant suggestions even before the brand make any contact with them.
- On average, 71% of people feel frustrated if the experience is impersonal.
- 59% of the consumers said that personalization affects their buying decision.
If you are starting, it is an excellent time, to begin with, personalization as a business strategy.
Importance of Personalization for Online Businesses
Let’s begin with the definition of personalized marketing. It is a business strategy used by businesses to target customers’ base upon their interests. For instance, when a customer browses a website, a brand takes information and runs an algorithm to analyze the intent of the customer. With this intent in mind, the brand can suggest products that are most likely to be personalized for the customer.
To succeed in personalized marketing, a company must obtain as much personal information as they can. Fortunately, there is a sea of data out there. Therefore, the data needs to be analyzed and leveraged to provide custom offers that target customers based on their interests, likes, and past behaviors.
Digital media is a fantastic medium to create personalized marketing offers. The information is tracked via cookies, beacons, or feedback is taken from the website. This provides advertisers to fine-tune their ads and show relevant ads to target customers in a way that they feel enticed.
A great personalized marketing strategy consists of four steps: First identify, then differentiate, interact, and customize the offer as per the customer.
- Identify: In the first step, data is collected by using age, gender, location, and likes of the user. This helps segment the customers which are the next step in the lane.
- Differentiate: Once the data is collected, it allows advertisers to segment the users based upon their liking. When the customers are segmented, then you’ll be able to target them better.
- Interact: Next come interacting with the customer. In this, a medium such as social media or direct contact is made with the customer.
- Customize: The final stage is when all the data is gathered and personalized as per the need of the customer.
To gain a better understanding of how personalized marketing is done, let’s look at some of the most promising real-life examples. These brands are not just personalizing; they are doing it in a way that people love it. Every below-mentioned brand did a fantastic job of understanding the intent of the client and offer them precisely what they need.
While you read, it is advised that you take notes and apply some of the tips in your business as well.
Aeropostale — Automatic Currency Conversion
A good thing about eCommerce is that it can scale on a global scale. One problem that customers face while they visit the website from an unknown country is that they fail to see the pricing in USD, and they have to convert in their respective countries.
Aeropostale did a great job by taking the IP of the customer and automatically converting the price in their respective currency. This gives ease to the customer as they exactly know the price; they are willing to spend.
As soon as you visit the website, it will detect your country and convert the currency so that you don’t have to worry about switching it in local currency.
From Good to Great:
What the company can do is whenever they pitch in a new market, they can offer geo-location discounts for that specific country. This will entice new users to try out the original brand.
Amazon — What do you like?
Unless you live in a cave, you are well aware of personalization by Amazon. Since the changes in 2013, the recommendation algorithm made quite a news on the internet.
Every time you visit Amazon, you cannot resist the personal recommendations by the website.
As you might have seen that hip hop is recommended due to keen interest in browsing such songs. Amazon took notes and started suggesting everything similar to hip hop. Whether it is books or anything on Amazon Prime, everything is recommended as per the interest of the user.
Anyone who has tried Amazon a couple of times understands that the plethora of personal recommendations makes the experience worthwhile. Even if you don’t know what exactly you are looking for, a simple search & browse on Amazon will provide you with endless recommendations that you’ll be eager to buy those things.
The best thing about personalization is that there are lesser complaints as the user selects the product. Another advantage of customization is that when the user starts browsing recommended stuff on Amazon, they often do impulsive buying without any regrets. How can you regret something that you like? It’s like letting something down that you’ve created yourself.
If you plan to offer personalized items, here is the catch: The best part regarding a recommendation is that the user discovers new things that force them to buy things of their liking.
From Good to Great:
To extend the idea, Amazon can provide customized lists that can be reused in the future. This means whenever the user pick products, Amazon store them on a list and save it for future reference.
DeansBeans — Customize Your Blend
It’s impossible to find that perfect blend of Coffee every time. But, how can you maintain that same blend every time? This is where DeansBeans can help you get that perfect cup. Just specify the blend that you can, save your blend, and you have your blend ready. Every time you visit the website, you’ll have that blend ready for you.
Just mention the Body, Flavor, Acid, Aroma, and Aftertaste once, and they will give you a customized coffee blend that you can use every time.
From Good to Great:
Just like DeansBeans, what Coffee shops can do is to assign a number to every custom order. On the next visit of the customer, he will only provide his name, and the customized Coffee will be ready. No need to stand in the long queue and customize your Coffee anymore.
Subway — Make your sandwich
One of the most promising examples of personalization is Subway. When you feel like having a sandwich, and you rush to Subway, you don’t order your sandwich right away. You make a customize your sandwich every time.
Tell the ingredients, and the server adds all those ingredients and make a unique sandwich for you. This form of product works because the customer makes the product. As soon as the sandwich is done, the customer loves it regardless of its taste because they make it.
From Good to Great
Similar to DeansBeans, an assigned number can be used to identify the custom order for the specific customer. And on arrival, the customer will provide the number, and their order will be ready in minutes.
Target — For Pregnant Women
Upon the first interaction with the customer, Target assigns a Guest ID number. The ID is then used to store customer information like demographics, job history, buying behavior, and browsing history.
Based on this algorithm, the marketing experts in Target created a “pregnancy prediction” score that analyzes the buying patterns in the early stages of pregnancy.
The thing with buying habits is that once they are formed, it is nearly impossible to change them. Unless a significant life event takes place, for instance, a baby on its way, this forces us to improve our routines. Suddenly, from makeup items to diaper bags or cocoa-butter lotion. Those were the behaviors that were noted by Target, and the customers started getting baby-related items.
From Good to Great:
Moreover, the company can provide details of the nearest hospitals and emergency numbers for its users. This will add value to the customer.
Coca Cola — A Personalized Coke
Back in 2011, Coca Cola came up with a “Share a Coke” campaign, which was first launched in Australia and came into the US in 2014. To grab the attention of the millennial, each bottle was assigned the first name of the person. For instance, you could share a coke with your better half with their first name on the bottle.
The personalized campaign was an instant hit. Many people proposed using “Share a Coke” and turned an ordinary proposal to a beautiful memory.
According to CNBC, the extended version of “Share a Coke”
consists of famous vacation destinations on the bottle. The campaign aims to remind people that they can enjoy Coke anywhere around the globe.
Such a smart strategy to give people something to share with their friends. The perfect personal gift that people celebrated a lot.
The campaign was an instant hit, and people from all across the globe adopted the campaign feeling it as a responsibility to share something personal with their friends.
From Good to Great:
With some innovation, the company can use coded messages that can be gifted to friends, and upon speaking or writing code, these messages can unveil themselves.
Graze — We Email You Snacks
From the color of our dress to what do we eat, countless decisions steal energy from our brains. Availing the opportunity, a snack company, Graze, made our life a little easy.
The idea behind the website is simple. Customers fill out there likes, dislikes, and allergies that they have from food. The website does the magic and sends personalized goodies in your inbox.
The brand has around more than 500 products, with approximately 20 million possible combinations that can be made. You don’t have to worry about calories and proteins as Graze will educate you regarding every food intake that you enjoy from the website.
A safe and healthy personalized solution for food lovers who want to eat and stay fit at the same time.
Anyone willing to experience the true essence of personalization, Graze, can serve as a fantastic example. The brand shows the importance of what the consumer wants and delivers precisely that leaving behind anything that the customer is not willing to receive.
Graze do this by using a super-advanced-algorithm and decide which of the combination is best suited for you.
The unique algorithm uses 300 million customer reviews to create 15,000 product combinations in an hour. In the end, a customer receives a notorious and healthy diet.
Powerful personalization is the core of Graze. According to Co-founder, Edd Read, “The company operates on a data-fuelled culture. We have incredible obsessive on some things.”
From Good to Great:
The company can further expand to send personalized recommendations to friends’ family in their email.
Prose — Taking Haircare to the Next Level
Do you have sensitive hair? How about shampoo, conditioner personalized just for you? The prose is like your consultant for all hair. Just fill out a short form. Pay a small fee. And the proprietary algorithm will create a custom product for you.
If you are confused about what anything you can always ask our experts to guide you. The company claims that they have the best experts that will help you decide and develop personalized beauty products.
It’s a combination of human expertise with machine automation that gives the user the most appropriate product for them. All of the products are made-to-order, so you don’t have to worry about using low-quality ingredients because everything is made fresh.
From Good to Great
The company can suggest personalized products based-upon upcoming or current trends in the market.
You.ology — Customized Skincare Products
You.ology will help you with customized skincare products. Just answer a few questions, and the brand will come up with a personalized version of the product that you can use every day. Whether it is a serum, a cleanser, or a moisturizer, the brand has everything on their list. The experts will recommend the best-suited products for your skin. If you don’t have any idea which products to use, you can always consult the dermatologist on the website, and they will guide you for custom products that you can use without worrying about it.
The best thing about the website is that it is not any other custom website. Apart from the custom products, you’ll be educated on which options you can use and which of the skincare products can harm your skin. Once you get a personalized product, you can always check with your family dermatologist, and they will assure you that the product is right-fit for your skin.
From Good to Great:
Just like Target, the company can predict any skin diseases prior to their occurrence. Just upload a photo, and you’ll be notified of the changes that might happen in your skin shortly.
To wrap it all up:
The world is moving fast, and to compete with the world, you must stay in touch with the latest trends and happenings in the market. If you don’t add a personal touch to your product/service, people might not find it unique.
Businesses have scaled from scratch to billion-dollar corporations by using the power of personalization. It is not just a question of necessity or not. It is more about survival in the digital cosmos. Either you compete, or you’ll be forgotten like many others. A personalized product will help you give a customer a feeling of achievement. Something that they created themselves.
Brands must realize that it is via personalization that customers feel safe and trust the brand. When the customers receive something that is part of their personality, they love to do business with the brand. When the customer gets something that they need, they place an order without giving any second thoughts. This is how small companies turn into something memorable.
If you are still not convinced that personalized is the only way to scale fast and grow big, you won’t be remembered by future generations. Personalization gives something to look up to. When a customer customizes a product, it gives them a feeling of being part of the process, which is why they will feel excited to get the product in their hands.
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Want you use 10X ideas on your website to increase your sales? contact SEtalks.com today!
Originally published at https://setalks.co on January 3, 2020.