Personalization extends to much more than just welcoming back a returning customer or showing recommendations based on their previous purchases. It’s about using what data you have to create a compelling experience that encourages the customer to take action and come back again.
Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?
The problem is, many marketers are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data collected, much less knowing what to do with it. According to this infographic from Monetate, 94% of marketers know how valuable personalization is, but when data gets real, 95% of them seem to be stuck in analysis paralysis:
The issue with big data: too much, too slow, too complicated
On the other end of the spectrum, you have companies who purposefully choose not to squeeze every last drop of information out from their customers – but rather monitor their shopping behaviors and react accordingly.
1. How Do You Like Your Coffee?
Caribou Coffee is a great example of this. By shopping for coffee online, it remembers your preferences and displays targeted flavors and varieties according to your search:
Personalization helps Caribou remember exactly how you like your coffee
Notice how it’s not demanding my name, email address, zip code or first-born child – but rather using what it has to make a concentrated (caffeinated?) effort toward showing me something I’d like.
2. Personalization Wrapped in an App
And personalization isn’t just for websites – it has made an impact on apps too. Wine-lover app Delectable lets you photograph, tag and save the wines you love, while recommending related ones based on your tastes and ratings. It also incorporates feedback and reviews from the wine community to help further socially solidify your smart choice – integrating a three-pronged strategy of social, share and review into a single app.
By bridging the gap between wines, wine lovers, wine makers and the general community, Delectable has made itself a must-have.
Delectable builds a custom “wine profile” of users and makes recommendations based on favorites
And it’s not just beverage companies that can zero-in on customer details to create a more welcoming experience. Virtually any company can leverage some form of real-life segmenting to create more appealing offers that customers find relevant and engaging.
In fact, poorly targeted personalization can do more than just irritate visitors, according to a study by Janrain/Harris Interactive:
Customers have strong attitudes and preferences for the ads and promotions they see
Notice that over half of consumers indicated that they don’t mind revealing personal information, so long as it’s beneficial to them and used responsibly by the company. Sadly, most company privacy policies are so entrenched in traditional broadcast marketing that it’s no wonder customers are leery to divulge their data.
3. Combine Your Personalization Efforts for Greater Impact
Of course, you don’t need every single shred of information about a visitor to be able to craft a compelling, conversion-boosting offer for them. Just look at this example of a hiking boot store leveraging retargeting and previous site searches to build a quick real-time profile:
An example of personalization combined with retargeting and flash sales
4. Personalizing Content via Social Media
Social media is largely an untapped source of instant, relevant information about your customers. UX Matters has a fantastic article on the different methods that can be used to customize content so that users are more likely to take action. From social gifting to product sharing, social marketing done right has the potential to bring friends
By cross referencing friends’ interests, likes and dislikes, it’s possible that you can end up with strong recommendations like this:
5. Personalization Profiles
Within the last month, Netflix rolled out their personalization profile, which eliminates the hassle of sharing one account across a multi-person household. This allows each member of the family to create and customize the recommendations that come to them, greatly increasing the chance that they’ll find something they like to watch without sifting through 500+ titles in the queue.
Netflix new personalization profiles lets families create individual profiles for each person so that recommendations are better tailored to them.
As you can see, personalization isn’t just about connection – it’s also about making things convenient and friendly.
eCommerce and SaaS (software as a service) can also benefit from integrating personalization – even on a budget. Uncommon Goods, a New York boutique specializing in unique gifts that span a variety of categories including home décor, garden, electronics and more. They were looking for a way to integrate smart up-sell and cross-sell options across their entire inventory.
With this in mind, how do you personalize recommendations that span such an eclectic range of goods? They chose Baynote, a personalization engine that went beyond correlating purchases and monitored user browsing behavior to be able to make intelligent recommendations that increased conversions and sales.
UncommonGoods and Baynote’s recommendation engine in action, recommending geekery, gadgets and graphics for yours truly!
How You Can Start Taking Advantage of Personalization
Fortunately, in this era of on-demand, customized everything, there’s no shortage of online tools, services and products available to make your personalization efforts more rewarding for both your bottom line, and for your customers. For instance:
- WP Greetbox will greet customers based on where they came from. A wide variety of sites and social networks are supported, and you can also create and insert your own.
- 15 Personalization Tools – Ranging from CMSes that incorporate personalization, to e-commerce, to SaaS (Software as a Service). One of the tools profiled even integrates with Google Analytics, which can help smaller businesses save money by using the tools they’re already used to.
- Visitor.js – Personalize pages on-the-fly based on a wide variety of collectible information. Plans start at $9.95/month.
- Barilliance lets ecommerce stores take advantage of cart abandonment, recommendations, behavioral targeting and email updates for customers. Prices range from $250-$500/month or more depending on the depth of services and number of page views per month.
What’s Your Opinion on Personalization?
Have you used personalization to increase your conversion rates? Do you appreciate it as a shopper or feel like it’s an invasion of your online privacy? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!
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