You get it: It isn’t enough to simply publish content. Today’s content needs to focus on the customer, not how great your product or company is.
What’s more, you need to tailor it to specific audiences. A 2021 consumer survey revealed that 71% of respondents expect personalized content. When they don’t get it, 76% get frustrated.
But have your teams taken the next step? Content personalization takes your customer-focused perspective to a whole new level. Let’s dig into four personalization tactics that will WOW your audience so you can gain more attention and drive more conversions.
Source: McKinsey & Company
Key Takeaways:
- Audience segmentation allows you to tailor content according to specific audience characteristics.
- Automation ensures you reach your audience when they’re online.
- Interactive visual content improves engagement and conversions.
- User profiles allow you to gather voluntary visitor information.
- Site cookies generate data to improve content personalization.
- Account-based marketing hyper-personalizes content for specific business roles.
In This Article:
- Segment Email Subscriber Lists for Content Personalization
- Use Interactive Blog Content So Users Can Personalize Their Experience
- Use Forms and Cookies for On-Site Content Personalization
- Leverage ABM To Connect B2B Decision-Makers to Hyper-Personalized Content
- Use Divvy To Simplify Content Personalization
- FAQs
1. Segment Email Subscriber Lists for Content Personalization
As Inc columnist Amy Balliett pointed out back in 2018, your brand will lose 72% of its audience unless you personalize your messages to them. For enterprise marketing teams, that’s quite a drop in your content’s reach.
Yes, you already personalize subject lines and even insert the recipient’s name into your emails’ content. That isn’t enough.
Recipients are sure to quit opening those emails if the content within them isn’t relevant. There’s a quick way to up your email game even more — subscriber segmentation.
Segmenting Your Subscriber List
No doubt, as a larger company, you have a broad range of products and services and undoubtedly a diverse customer base. Use the data you glean from your social media and content analytics to create audience segments. Then, create content that addresses each segment’s pain points and interests.
Divvy’s analytics tools provide a headache-free way to aggregate and assess data from all your channels. You’ll be on your way to content personalization in no time.
Using Content Automation
Bringing the power of content automation into the picture helps you get your emails into each segment’s hands at the best time for their specific location. For example, if you’re targeting your prospects’ CEOs, you’ll probably have the best chance of reaching them after they have had their morning coffee and are reviewing their inboxes for urgent messages.
In contrast, if you’re a B2C company targeting stressed-out moms, you’re likely to reach them in the evening hours after the kiddies are tucked into bed. You can’t do this without automation.
For a company with a global reach, segmenting your audience by location, as well as demographics, interests, and online behavior, is a must. Divvy’s calendar filtering capabilities let you segment your audience using multiple filters, allowing you to reach the right people at the right time.
2. Use Interactive Blog Content So Users Can Personalize Their Experience
Another way to bring content personalization into the picture is to include interactive maps and infographics in your visual content. We’ve always advocated adding visual content to break up the monotony of long stretches of text in your blog posts.
After all, most people retain 65% of visual information after three days versus only 10% of written information. If you want your blog posts to be memorable, supplement the text with visuals.
Interactive visuals add even more value by:
- Generating twice the engagement over static content
- Doubling conversion rates
- Increasing site visits and impressions
- Boosting message recall
- Nurturing leads more effectively than static content
Whether it’s a map that users from different regions can click on to learn location-specific information or an infographic with clickable links to more detailed information about various statistics depicted on the visual.
How is Interactive Content Used?
Source: MarketSplash
Need an example? Check out our recent guide: Back to the Future: Insights & Tips on Content Strategy, Planning & Measurement.
3. Use Forms and Cookies for On-Site Content Personalization
Though third-party cookies (we’re looking at you, creepy Internet stalkers) are now on their way out, you can still use on-site cookies and forms on your website to empower visitors to direct their experience while browsing your website content.
Create a User Profile Form
Start with a simple profile creation form, as our own Brock Stechman advises. You’ll usually get their email address, but you can also ask them a few optional questions, such as their age group, industry, product preferences, or other key data points that will help you personalize their browsing experiences.
Don’t make the form too complex or intrusive, or users will ditch the form and your site. Make it easy for them to connect.
Use Site Cookies
You can also leverage site cookies for content personalization. Use them to track your visitors’ locations, how they arrived on your site (such as paid search, social, or other online sources), on-site searches, purchase records, and any additional information they share voluntarily.
Use visitors’ location data to provide them with location-specific information, such as native language, nearest office, or store contact information. Referral sources can give you an indication of their preferences while they’re on your site.
For example, if they got to your site through a digital coupon, you could assume their budget is a crucial consideration. If they clicked through to your site through a visual post, such as Instagram or Pinterest, you might incorporate automation tools for content personalization, such as suggesting content that includes stunning visuals.
On the other hand, if they’re responding to an ad for a product, they’re likely ready to buy so you can suggest the sale page for the product itself. If your visitors accessed your page from a mobile device, they might be interested in calling for more information or booking online. Make it easy for them to do so with a clickable link to trigger a call.
4. Leverage ABM To Connect B2B Decision-Makers to Hyper-Personalized Content
One of the most effective ways to connect with B2B buyers with hyper-personalized content is account-based marketing. The ABM trend is catching on, with 80% of B2B brands using it.
ABM targets the major decision-makers in a company — usually the C-suite — with high-value content that addresses each company official’s specific interests. Collaborating with your sales team to learn your audience’s concerns and objections can transform prospects into customers.
For example, if your company makes software that automates and streamlines parts of the manufacturing process, you could incorporate content personalization for each decision-maker:
- For the CEO: A collection of case studies demonstrating how your software cuts costs, boosts revenue, and grows the customer base for similar companies. Case studies like these will likely ease the CEO’s concerns about your solution’s potential to increase the ROI and extend the brand’s reach into new markets.
- For the CFO: While the CEO is interested in the big picture, the chief financial officer will want to see the hard numbers behind the glowing case studies. Graphs and infographics that provide a numerical story of your customers’ success stories will likely ease your prospect’s natural fears about making a massive change in production.
- For the head of engineering: Engineers want to know how your solution works. Collaborate with your engineering and development teams to create a detailed, highly technical white paper or ebook that addresses questions about how your solution can work with your prospect’s existing equipment.
- For the CIO: Put your creatives’ heads together with your development and technical support team to create a custom-tailored brochure. Ideally, it would include how your solution works, troubleshooting instructions, and a guarantee of round-the-clock support in case of technical glitches.
If you have a repository of past content at your fingertips on your content marketing platform, your teams can easily repurpose past content to meet your prospects’ needs.
Although ABM is a labor-intensive process that you should reserve for your biggest prospects, having such a treasure trove of content assets available should enable you to pull them up at a moment’s notice. Use your Divvy content calendar to coordinate everyone who takes part in content planning and creation, and you’ll have a streamlined process that personalizes content at scale.
Use Divvy To Simplify Content Personalization
Put the power of content personalization to work to increase your sales and expand your reach worldwide. With a comprehensive content platform like DivvyHQ, you can simplify the entire content personalization process from ideation to analyzing the final results. Request a demo today to eliminate content chaos.
FAQs
Why Is Personalization Important in Content?
Content personalization signals to your audience that you understand what they need and want from you. Personalized content improves the customer experience and helps you forge connections with your audience. It allows you to deliver relevant and helpful content, targeting audience segments and meeting them where they are on the buyer’s journey.
What Is the Method of Personalization?
Personalization is a content marketing approach focusing on audience needs and desires, delivering customized content based on audience segment, buyer’s stage, and individual preferences and behaviors. Using this strategy is an effective way to nurture prospects, convert, and generate brand loyalty.
What Are the Two Types of Personalization?
The two main types of content personalization are explicit and implicit personalization. Precise personalization occurs when individuals provide information and give permission to receive content, such as subscribing to your email list or creating a user profile. Implicit personalization involves gathering information on audience behavior and providing content based on those behaviors.
What Is the Difference Between Dynamic Content and Personalization?
The primary difference between adaptive and personalized content is the adaptive nature of dynamic content. AI and machine learning technologies learn what content a user might want based on browsing behaviors, purchase history, and website interaction and offer relevant content in real-time. Content personalization also delivers tailored content but lacks dynamic content’s automation and adaptive capabilities.