Relevance and personalization are two things today’s consumers expect when visiting a website. 74% of them get frustrated when websites show ads and promos that have nothing to do with their interests. Customizing a website’s content and how that content is delivered to users is crucial in keeping customers interested and encourage them to buy a product or register an account. The key to effective content personalization is to create detailed customer profiles and segments, and deliver the same level of customization across all marketing and sales channels.

Profiling and Segmentation

• Personalization starts with building each customer’s profile. The more information a customer profile has, the better customization can be. Businesses can gather data through surveys, forms, or other means that require users to provide information themselves, or gather information through anonymous data like IP addresses and cookies. Amazon is a good example of a website that offers accurate recommendations based on user data.

Amazon personalizes product recommendations based on items users own or have purchased, and products they “Liked” using the Amazon Betterizer.

Some of the most important data to gather when developing better customer personalization and segmentation include:

• Location – Customers in different locations may have different interests and needs, or might be using a different language. Gathering and confirming their location data can help businesses deliver more accurate and targeted offers.
• Interests – This is especially important if the business’ content or products target different industries or niches. The most common way to gather this information by asking for it on the landing page or through social sign-ins.
• Behavior – The way customers interact with a website can provide a lot of information about what interests them and what they want to find. This can help business owners determine which channels and content receives more attention from users and provides better sales or conversions.
• Referrals – Delivering content based on where the visitor is coming from provides better context and improves engagement.
• Funnel Position – Customizing content based on the customers’ position in the sales funnel can convince them to move on to the next step. For example, customers are more likely to add related products to their shopping carts if they’re displayed as they finalize their initial purchase.

Content Marketing Channels

There are four major channels businesses and marketers can use to deliver content. Studies show that 40% of consumers prefer buying from retailers that provide a consistently personalized shopping experience across all these channels.

• On-page – Many websites make the mistake of delivering the same content to all users. It’s important to provide on-page content like product recommendations or advertisements based on user preferences.
• Email – Email is one of the most common channels marketers use to deliver personalized content, but simply adding a customers’ name to the salutation isn’t enough. The most effective way to personalize email is to segment recipients based on interest. For example, an online book store can offer different newsletters based on a user’s preferred genres.
• Social Media – Many marketers and business owners make the mistake of relying on automation to update their social feeds. This can the business’ social media pages look spammy, or like a poor replica of their blog or website. Personalized interactions with social media followers helps give the brand a voice and improves user engagement.
• Mobile – Businesses can use apps and dynamic, responsive websites to create a more personalized experience for users that interact with the brand using their mobile devices.

Delivering personalized content to your customers is a good way to improve sales and conversions, and provides a more enjoyable shopping experience.