If you want loyal customers and a reputation that goes beyond your campaign, personalisation is key. Today’s customers are now enjoying personal B2C relationships with brands and businesses that offer a personalised experience. Those brands and businesses are enjoying higher quality leads and long-term customer retention.
Personalisation strategies have already shown positive outcomes for many businesses. In fact, according to Monetate 2017, 79% of organisations that exceeded revenue goals had a documented personalisation strategy.
74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalised.[1] So, satisfy customer preferences and prevent frustration by personalising your content.
The Benefits of Personalisation
As a way of giving users the information they need in real time, in a way that suits their online habits and behaviour, personalisation offers many benefits for your business.
- Increased conversion rates.
- Increased user engagement.
- Improved user experience.
- Greater lead generation.
- Improved brand reputation.
- Increased customer loyalty.
What exactly is Personalisation?
Personalisation is the identification of a user as a member of a certain audience, and the delivery of relevant content to that user.
Customers want to know they are understood, and that your business pays attention to their wants and needs. This is exactly what personalisation can do. It is a means of delivering content, updates, and offers within the context of the user’s specific interests. It is anticipation of user expectations, and fulfilment without the need to ask.
In personalisation strategies, information regarding demographics, customer interests, and patterns of online behaviour is collected, analysed, then applied to create content, campaigns, and offers that resonate with the user.
Collecting and analysing data is integral to building an in-depth knowledge of your target audience.
Why is Personalisation Important?
The importance of personalisation is best understood when you put yourself in your customer’s shoes. When using a website, how do you want the experience to be? Do you want generalised content or irrelevant offers that are of no interest to you? Or would you rather be provided with content that is relevant to your interests, offers that can actually benefit you, and updates that are informative and useful?
Users have come to expect a personalised experience which means it is more than worth your time creating. If you want to reach your target audience effectively and make a real, lasting impact, personalisation of the user experience is essential.
‘91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who recognise, remember, and provide them with relevant offers and recommendations.’[2]
How can Personalisation Help my Business?
Decisions to buy but are not always based on rationality and neither are budgets! Many of us could admit to impulse buying on more than an occasional basis. Why? Because the product or service being purchased had some emotional resonance. Emotions are one of the key driving forces when it comes to making purchases.
Aside from necessity, we want to know what we consume is going to serve our happiness in one way or another – whether that is by freeing up our time or providing us an opportunity to improve our knowledge or skill set.
One thing that is known to promote happiness is the feeling of being understood and cared for. This goes for all relationships – family, romantic, and business.
Following a personalised experience, users feel their needs are being taken care of and that their time is respected. Ultimately, when you offer a personalised user experience, you send to the user the message that you are listening, and that you care about their experience.
This is the type of message your business really needs to be sending. There is a high probability that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of competitors offering the same type of product or service as you. How, among all these competitors, can you demonstrate to users why yours is the brand or business they should be engaging with?
By personalising your content. By showing your potential customer that you understand their needs. By standing tall as a strong, reliable source of highly relevant content and news that will make their future purchasing decisions hassle-free.
84% of consumers say being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business.[3]
Personalisation Recognises the Customer
As customers, we like to know that we are an important part of the businesses we engage with. We want to know that our engagement and our purchases matter, that they make a difference. Essentially, customers want to be recognised and acknowledged for supporting your business.
Personalisation satisfies the customer, which is why it shouldn’t be overlooked. User satisfaction can be the deciding factor as to whether or not that user will become a loyal customer.
Sources:
[1] 2013. Rethinking Retail: Insights From Consumers And Retailers Into An Omni-Channel Shopping Experience. [ebook] Bangalore: Infosys Limited. Available at: <https://www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/Documents/genome-research-report.pdf> [Accessed 31 July 2020].
[2] 2018. MAKING IT PERSONAL Why Brands Must Move From Communication To Conversation For Greater Personalization.. [ebook] Accenture. Available at: <https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-77/Accenture-Pulse-Survey.pdf> [Accessed 31 July 2020].
[3] Salesforce.com. n.d. What Are Customer Expectations (And How Have They Changed)?. [online] Available at: <https://www.salesforce.com/research/customer-expectations/> [Accessed 31 July 2020].
