Personalized marketing is all about connecting the dots – data and content – based on consumers interests and preferences. Data collection and analysis allows for strategic deployment of individualized content to target audiences. “Customers have more choice than ever before, so we have to ensure we’re meeting their needs in real time, on-demand and personally relevant ways, both online and offline,” Mark Sciortino, VP of brand marketing strategy and planning, Walgreens, relayed in 2018.

Here are three benefits to utilizing personalized marketing:

Improved Customer Experience

Knowing their sensitive information is protected makes customers more comfortable with providing personal information. In return, they should receive more personalized experiences upon subsequent visits.

Increased Brand Loyalty

When consumers provide information and data, they expect to be treated as unique individuals with specific preferences. Dedicate time and resources to implement successful personalized marketing strategies. The result will be a competitive advantage in both brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.

Inflated ROI

If your automation technology is on point, you can easily identify individual customer preferences. Capitalize on it with customized content across channels online and offline. This will result in more sales opportunities. Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign used common first names to attract millennials. That personalized campaign was the first time in years Coca-Cola grew their sales.

Personalized marketing campaigns require you to connect the three “C’s” of content with the three “C’s” of customization. You must know – and connect with – your audience. To know them is to love them by generating content personalized to them.

Collection

To create personalized marketing, you have to know what matters to your target. That starts with collecting data about them which is relevant to your brand. Real-time collection and analysis of data allows you to consistently evolve your marketing strategies to customers’ ever-changing behaviors. For example, if you are marketing a restaurant, your data collection would include location, demographic, and transactional data.

Creation

For your data collection to be beneficial, you have to utilize the collected information to create relevant content. Data collection allows you to create targeted and customized email marketing, social media marketing, video messages (one reason automated technology is key), and individualized product recommendations. In fact, 2015 research showed that personalized email campaigns received 29 percent higher email open rates and 41 percent higher click-through rates than ordinary emails.

Connection

Connection is built through authentic interactions. Personalized marketing allows you to connect individually and in community with your audience. You can show your human side (social media engagement or working reply-to email addresses). It also allows you to capitalize on consumers FOMO (fear of missing out) by showing how many people may be looking at the same product, how many of an item remain in stock or how long an item may remain on sale.

As with any marketing campaign, there are challenges to achieving these goals. In personalized marketing, the two main challenges to overcome are:

• Consistency. Consumers are interacting with brands across a number of channels, including email, social, mobile, etc. Each interaction with your brand must be consistent at every touch point.

• Time and Resources. To collect the right data, companies must utilize the right technology. Analysis of the data to create relevant content on a constant, evolving basis across multiple channels is key. This takes a significant number of hours and a significant chunk of manpower and monetary resources.

We would love to be a consistent resource to help you connect all the dots on your brand’s personalized marketing campaign.