Marketing Personalization: Reaching Your Audience in Their Context

To effectively communicate your message, creating the right context is essential. Marketing Personalization has opened the door to more efficient online marketing by helping businesses create the right context on an individual level. As Millennials and Gen Z take over as the dominant groups driving the economy, marketing philosophy and tactics have to adapt to them. “Members of this new generation have an 8-second attention span, down from 12 seconds in 2000.” (Bloomberg) This is just one of the many trends that are pushing marketing technology to look for creative solutions to reach this new group of buyers. The winners will be the ones that embrace the change and cash in before it’s “mainstream.”

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to speak at the Florida Institute of Technology on the topic of marketing personalization. Being a Millennial myself, I have a passion for creating more human connections online. It was amazing to see the students’ responses to my presentation. It was as if they finally heard what they were hoping to hear. That marketing in the 21st century could be more connected, more real, more human.

With the rise of the internet came the ability to reach the world in an instant. But, like all good things, there is always a downside. Much of the communication online is anonymous. Even when using social media, most people only share their “highlight” reels, and very few create real connections. Technology continues to search for ways to make the internet more human because today’s users are craving connectedness.

Marketing isn’t about manipulation or deception. Good marketing is about telling a story that resonates with the audience you are trying to reach. It’s about unblurring the lines of miscommunication and being open and authentic. This is why content is so important and why so many businesses are pouring resources into content creation. But just creating content isn’t going to magically deliver results. In order for your content to have maximum impact, you must deliver the right piece of content, at the right time, to the right user. But how?

This is where the software comes in. No automation software is going to be able to create content for you. But what it can do is help you leverage your content better. Marketing Personalization software learns about your individual user’s needs, trends, and interests and then delivers the right content to them at the right time. It creates a customized experience for each user, helping them continue their own personal buyer’s journey.

Below is the presentation I gave at FIT. It’s an overview of Marketing Personalization, why it’s important, and the impact it is having today.

Here are a few of the key points I want to drive home:

How do we differentiate our message without compromising our reach?

Better research: Understand not just the demographics of your target audience but the psychographics as well. Strive to find the “why” behind their behavior.

Segment our segments: Hyper-segmentation helps us to deliver a more contextually appropriate message.

Personalize the experience:  This speaks to our emotional need to belong. It builds trust with your audience and helps build brand equity.

• The difference between a generic “thank you” and a hand-written note.
• More human experience.

The Impact of Personalization

Channels of delivery and the results:

• Personalized emails deliver six times higher transaction rates, but 70% of brands fail to use them.
• Sixty percent of marketers struggle to personalize content in real time, yet 77% believe real-time personalization is crucial.
• Nearly three-fourths (74%) of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content (e.g., offers, ads, promotions) appears that has nothing to do with their interests.
• In-house marketers who are personalizing their web experiences and who are able to quantify the improvement see, on average, a 19% uplift in sales.
  Source http://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2015/2/18/mind-blowing-stats-personalization.html

Marketing of the future will be based more on creating connections and relationships than traditional objectives.