You can browse the aisles all day long, but no suit will fit as well as the one tailored specially for you does. The same applies to e-commerce. The best way to catch the eye of a potential customer is by offering them something that resonates with them. Something that directly addresses one of their needs. Something that is made just for them. Personalized content is no longer an option- it is a necessity in the world of e-commerce.
When thinking about personalization, most people consider tacking on a customer’s name at the beginning of their email as adequate. However, it goes way beyond just that. Personalization refers to adopting a customer-centric approach to your sales campaign. You may draw the customer’s attention with their name at the top of the page, but how will you stop them from clicking away when they find nothing of relevance further down?
It is important to understand that personalization is not just an afterthought, it is a process. Your audience should be able to feel your presence at every stage of the sales funnel and even after they have made a purchase. This genuine connection is what keeps the person coming back for more because they know their specific requirements will be catered for.
Storytelling is a great way to humanize your brand and give the customers something to relate to on an emotional level as opposed to just making a monetary transaction with a faceless entity. It allows you to develop organic relationships with your target audience based on trust, authenticity, and good customer experience.
Here are some tips on how you can go about personalizing your brand content:
The process begins with an analysis of your market. Take a look at the customer experience you are currently providing. What kind of CTA’s lead to the most conversions? What posts generate the highest engagement? How many interactions does it take before a customer makes a purchase? What kind of customers are likely to come back for seconds? Use this research to identify areas that can be personalized for your average customer.
A better way to analyze your audience is through segmentation. Break down your audience into groups based on commonalities. For example, you can separate out first-time buyers, first-time returning customers, loyal purchasers, and abandoners. How you market your content/product to each one of these groups will be entirely different. The same strategy will not encourage all of these customers to interact with your services.
If you use it the right way, automation is not necessarily the antithesis of personalization. While you do want to organically engage with your audience, doing so a hundred percent of the time is simply not logistically possible or profitable. There are several tools that are designed to help streamline your workflow and segment your content based on your own criteria. Identify areas in your process that can benefit from such automation.
