Today’s post is on the 5 ways to personalise marketing in 2017 to result in a higher conversion rate.

What is “personalisation”?

According to MarketingProf, businesses that personalise web experiences in 2015 experience an average 19% increase in revenue.

Contrary to popular belief, “personalisation” in the digital context is not writing your customer’s name in every email you send. That could be the definition twenty years ago, though.

Instead, personalisation in today’s digital context is understanding the entire process of your customer and what they are doing on your website. It is also knowing what sort of IT gadget each individual tends to use when they use your website, and why they use your website after gathering some data.

The whole idea behind personalisation is to help your customer get what they want easily. Sometimes this also includes a product or service that they do not even know they want until they see the actual thing. The goal here is for the company to increase the conversion rate.

Method #1: Find out where and what people are doing prior to visiting your website.

It is important to collect a rich set of data on inbound traffic. In particular, ask yourself where your readers or users are coming from–is it from search engines, social media, or did they enter your website directly to visit?

Asking yourself where your readers are coming from will give you some hints on what they are looking for on your website so that you can customise and personalise the website interactions accordingly.

For example, if 90% of your inbound traffic comes from Facebook, then it might be wise to allocate more of your advertising budget on Facebook advertising. If 40% of your inbound traffic is from google search engine based on the keywords “Scott Adam’s new book”, then it might be wise to direct these people to a page where Scott Adam’s new book can be easily purchased.

Method #2: Get aggregated data and make recommendations on what your user should do next based on this set of data.

Great personalised recommendations do result in increased sales.

Amazon does this very well. According to McKinsey, Amazon’s recommendation machine constitutes up to 35% of Amazon’s total revenue. Therefore, if you are running an e-commerce website, it is wise to build a really good recommendation plugin/ widget such that your customers are likely to buy what you recommend too.

A recommendation segment will personalise the buying experience for your customer.

Method #3: Observe and map out your customer’s behavioural process, and design a service blueprint that best fits a particular segment’s behaviour.

Different segments of customers act differently, so do observe the behaviour of each buyer and map it out.

In the context of e-commerce, the digital marketer can consider planning prompts or customised messages at each stage when the customer leaves the website, to urge the user to return and make a purchase. This is possible because of the presence of dynamic content (See method #4), and the popular use of social media.

Once the service blueprint of each buyer persona is clear, then it is possible to create personalised and targeted prompts at each stage of the buying decision.

Method #4: Use dynamic content

It has become more and more popular use dynamic content, which is generally regarded as versatile. You can use dynamic content to personalise emails, websites, and advertisements–over and beyond the traditional IP address. For instance, if you want to target C-level executives, you can use dynamic content to feature content that directly addresses their position and value-adds their stature.

In addition, more and more companies are using dynamic content in their Facebook advertising. Facebook dynamic advertisements are especially useful in E-commerce, for they remind users of the stage they were in the previous interaction with your website. Facebook dynamic advertisements also work across all types of gadgets, so they can form a seamless experience.

Method #5: Use the look-alike logic.

A great method to personalise content is to use think about what your most valued customers have in common.

Do they stay in a particular area, are they of a certain age group, or do they have a certain political affiliation? Once you figure out certain common grounds, then it is possible to build content evolving around these common grounds.

We hope you have enjoyed today’s post on the 5 ways to personalise marketing in 2017. Have a good Sunday ahead!