Marketing Personalization Archives

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Avoid Making These 7 Marketing Personalization Mistakes

February 4, 2022 No Comments

Companies that get marketing personalization right perform much better than those that don’t, according to a McKinsey & Company report.

Companies that grow faster drive 40% more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts. “Across U.S. industries, shifting to top-quartile performance in personalization would generate over $1 trillion in value, McKinsey added.

The Top 7 Marketing Personalization Mistakes

According to marketing managers, there are 7 common marketing personalization mistakes that brands are making today that keep them from maximizing the benefits of their personalization efforts.

1. Using Incomplete Data

Personalization should incorporate a variety of data sources, spanning from zero to third party data, said Jonathan Moran SAS product marketing manager.

“Zero-party data (data collected voluntarily and directly from customers) should be combined with first-party (customer demographic data) along with the less valuable second-party (customer data that is collected and then sold) and third-party data (data collected by an entity that doesn’t have a direct relationship with the customer) sources.”

Zero and first-party data are the most valuable for personalization, and companies should use this to form the basis of their personalization strategies, Moran added. Organizations that are using primarily second and third-party data to perform personalization will often see poor content personalization practices, low response rates on personalization efforts, and little overall value from personalization programs.

2. Failing to Ensure Data Quality

“To effectively accomplish personalized communications, there are increased demands on data quality, said Christian Wettre, SugarCRM senior vice president and general manager, Sugar Platform. “Personalization efforts are often not as effective as intended when marketers are not confident in the accuracy of details in their databases. Lacking this confidence, the personalization is often diluted by a generalization of the message.”

To overcome this issue, Wettre recommended that the marketing and CRM databases should be treated as valuable assets and carefully vetted, appended, culled, and curated. “Successful marketers will systematically validate and augment their data, and look to incorporate third-party intent data,” Wettre said. “When a marketing team trusts their data, they are freed to unleash greater creativity and author more interesting and relevant messaging.”

3. Failing to Profile Customers

To increase your effectiveness in correctly receiving feedback, you must profile your customers, said Jim Pendergast, senior vice president of SVP of altLINE, a division of The Southern Bank Company. “Find out who they are, what they like, and how changes in your store affect the way they shop. You can usually track these types of changes using analytics software, which can be a huge help in increasing your effectiveness. Though you can’t help everyone the same way, you can provide several options that will suit people all over your region.”

4. Using a Partial View

Personalization can’t be performed on a channel-by-channel basis, Moran said. “Nothing frustrates an end customer more than getting a message on one channel (e-mail) for an offer that was just accepted (or declined) on another channel (call centre, in store, ecommerce, etc.).

To remedy this, Moran recommended techniques like deterministic identity management and resolution to join customer data (all types) from all channels to get a holistic view of the customer.

5. Defining Personalization Too Narrowly

Similarly, too many organizations fail to consider everything personalization should include, said Sarah Cascone, Bluecore vice president of marketing. “Companies need to understand that personalization is more than just a name in a subject line; it’s the product recommendations, offers, and channel timing that creates true curation. It begins with valuable identification. Businesses commonly use identification to gather emails and phone numbers, instead of capturing the data on shopper preferences that will allow them to reach consumers on a deeper level. Once that understanding is established, businesses can move to measuring the success of their personalization strategy.”

Feature Image Credit: Adobe Stock

By Phil Britt

In News

How To Improve Marketing Personalization, Even With Crappy Data

April 6, 2020 No Comments

By Bruce McMeekin

When marketing teams are forced to use “crappy” data, they risk sending inaccurate or ineffective messages to customers and prospects. When you consider that personalization is a vital technique for businesses looking to draw customers’ attention, this is especially problematic. In fact, customers tend to respond more favorably to emails tailored to their preferences, and brands with mature personalization strategies see increases in revenue.

After all, most customers appreciate when Amazon emails a useful purchase suggestion or when Netflix understands their viewing preferences better than a spouse. These companies — and other personalization-first brands — use behavioral analytics to scrutinize customer behavior, develop personas and present offers with a high probability of converting into sales or improved user experience.

In working with clients across the board at my marketing agency, I’ve found that the art of personalization isn’t as easy to master. According to Experian, the majority of businesses say inaccurate data will impact their ability to provide a great customer experience.

5 Ways To Improve Personalization

Lacking insightful data is tough for any business trying to keep up in the digital age. According to Salesforce’s “State of the Connected Customer,” 73% of customers “expect companies to understand their needs and expectations,” and 62% “expect companies to adapt based on their actions and behavior.” However, you don’t need stellar data resources to practice personalization.

Personalized marketing is nothing new (after all, it’s nice when your favorite restaurant’s sommelier knows you enjoy Super Tuscans and suggests one to try). However, automated personalization now occurs much earlier in the sales process than it used to. If you have crappy data, there are still valuable best practices you can adopt to personalize your communications:

1. Place your non-crappy data sources in an inventory.

The best place to find trustworthy contact and behavioral data is perhaps your transactional database (think QuickBooks or another accounting platform). Here, you can likely find email or postal addresses, customer or business names, and products or services purchased.

Make sure you focus on recent transactions, as data from the last year is more likely to be accurate. Besides this, focus on records with complete contact information and see if you can obtain any proxy for profitability (if so, consider also assigning a profitability decile). After all, there’s no point in spending marketing time or dollars to acquire low-profit business.

Look for data fields that show how much you know about customers’ needs. For example, if you run a computer servicing business, note which customers use Macs and which use PCs. If you have email addresses, you can get more information from FullContact, FreshAddress, Datanyze or Clearbit. Google Analytics also offers behavioral data, such as how frequently customers visit your site, webpages of interest and more.

2. Use your intuition to build personas.

If you still can’t summon much confidence in your data, don’t worry. Create your own data by shaping personas from disparate pieces of accurate information and your intuition. Form a narrative around these scraps by answering some simple questions:

• What is this person’s pain point?

• What makes this person happy?

• What makes this person feel successful?

• How can our company help?

Creative teams love this type of information — it helps them craft offers to persuade and engage audiences. You also don’t need clean data to do this (though it helps).

3. Say ‘thank you.’

You’ll know this right away: Every transaction in your sales database represents a customer. With that simple fact, personalize your communication using an appreciative tone. You can also send communication from the manager of the store that customer visited or the employee whom the customer spoke with. Likewise, you can probably find out where customers like to do business, where they live and which website pages interest them most. All of these factors can help personalize your messaging.

Tie in the benefits of your product in a personal way. This could mean appealing to emotions (perhaps helping your audience feel or look better). And when customers visit your website, use cookies to trigger dynamic content based on the pages they visit. From these seemingly dull instruments, you can scratch out a convincing image of who your customers might be and which offers could interest them.

4. Remember that all you need is a single piece of personal information.

The quest for data wealth can be overwhelming — you want to know everything about your customers all at once. But even a single piece of information can be illuminating.

We recently helped a bank identify which of its personal banking customers owned a business. To do this, we scoured LinkedIn and company websites, verified contact information and assessed suitability for a business banking offer. Because this extra step individualized customer messages, it added much more credibility to the marketing campaign: “You trust us with your personal banking. We can help (insert business name) succeed, too.”

Is this tactic too intrusive? Not necessarily: Salesforce’s study also suggests that 62% of millennials and Generation Zers are okay with companies using relevant personal data in a “transparent and beneficial” way.

5. Don’t be afraid to take risks.

People are understandably nervous around data. Remember that you can afford to take calculated risks in the quest for better personalization. Simply make sure you act ethically and comply with privacy laws.

For example, if you have more than 50% confidence in the personalized content you use, go with it. Perfection is impossible when dealing with marketing data, so it’s okay to be wrong with a minority of prospects in order to move your revenue and market share needles forward.

With customers increasingly expecting personalized communication, you can’t afford to stay frozen in fear. According to the Salesforce study above, half of millennials and Gen Zers usually ignore messages from brands unless they’re personalized — that’s 50% of connected young people shut out of your business before they get a chance to learn more. Don’t let your data insecurities stand in the way.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Bruce McMeekin

Bruce McMeekin is CEO and Founder of BKM Marketing, an integrated marketing agency based in the Boston area.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

How to Balance Marketing Automation and Personalization

September 25, 2019 No Comments

By Albizu Garcia

Brands have embraced automation to help them carry out a spectrum of everyday tasks. According to a recent survey published by Social Media Today, 75 percent of marketing teams use some form of an automation tool. However, with growing popularity, there are growing concerns. The same survey reports that 61 percent of marketers are concerned about the lack of personalization due to automation. Likewise, a global study by PWC found that as technology advances, most consumers want brands to use technology as a tool for increasing personalized support. Put simply, customers want more human interaction, not less.

That’s why it’s vital that today’s businesses find the right balance between automation and personalization. Companies that go overboard on automation can come across as detached and generic. On the other hand, those that get too personal with customers can come off as intrusive and creepy. Brands need to get it right to maintain a trusting relationship with their customers.

Here are ways marketers can successfully balance automation and personalization.

Offer Timely, Valuable Content

Email campaigns are an effective, low-cost way to leverage automation and personalization, but marketers need to be careful not to clog consumer inboxes. Instead, they should focus on offering relevant and valuable content that doesn’t involve using intrusive data.

Most consumers are familiar with receiving personalized content based on an action, such as an online purchase, that features a related product or service. Using transactional data to send automated, personalized emails can be less intrusive since it’s a natural, and at this point expected, component of the relationship.

Marketers can also use geographical data, such as a customer’s zip code or address, to deliver personalized content, like creating a segmented list of customers and offering them discounts to nearby events. Although consumers dislike when brands bombard them with irrelevant, generic messaging, they also don’t like overly personal messages that infringe on their privacy.

Respect Consumer Privacy

Research shows that 81 percent of consumers want brands to get to know them and understand when to approach them, but not at the expense of their privacy. There is a fine line between highly relevant content and tactics that take marketing personalization too far.

For example, sending mass emails to consumers with the same promotions or offers isn’t an effective strategy. Consumer interests vary significantly. Marketers should pay attention to their target audience and consider whether the interaction will make them feel special or unsettled. Customer data can be used effectively, but content that’s too personalized can disturb customers, thus putting them off the brand.

Enhance the Customer Experience

It’s crucial that marketers use technology to improve the consumer experience, rather than eliminate the human touch. For instance, British grocery chain Sainsbury’s delivered an exceptional customer experience with its “This Time It’s Ultra Personalized!” campaign. The store used smartphone location data to provide personalized offers to customers through their mobile devices as they walked around the store. Not only did the campaign promote in-store offers, but it helped the company gain insights about how people navigated the aisles. As a result, Sainsbury’s was able to make better merchandising decisions and improve its in-store customer experience. Marketers must remember that relationships are crucial in business and that automation tools provide additional support.

Combine Automation and Human Touch

There are many ways marketers can mix automation and personalization, such as inserting tags to add customers’s names in emails to make them feel like the message addresses them individually. Going a step further, marketers can encourage team members to interact with potential customers by making calls, sending emails or requesting a connection on social media.

For example, if a visitor downloads content from the brand’s website, it’s a good idea to have someone on the team reach out personally, immediately. According to an oft-cited Lead Response Management Study, waiting more than 10 minutes to follow up decreased the odds of securing a lead by as much as 400 percent.

If automation and personalization are going to be effective, it’s important to find a way to balance the two. Overdoing automation can make brand messages seem robotic and irrelevant. Likewise, getting too personal can overwhelm consumers. A successful relationship between consumers and brands ultimately relies on the right blend.

Feature Image Credit: Maskot | Getty Images

By Albizu Garcia

Co-Founder and CEO of Gain