Personalization is on the agenda for many companies. With 89% of business leaders believing personalization is crucial to their success in the upcoming years, and 86% of executives reporting that their marketing strategies demand more advanced personalization than their current capabilities allow.
Though you might want to take those stats with a small grain of salt, as they both come from surveys sponsored by personalization technology vendors, there’s no denying that there’s a high bar for content personalization. People are now very familiar with having algorithms pick the perfect content (TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, etc), and businesses are having to ramp up personalization strategies to meet expectations.
What is content personalization?
Content personalization is too often thought of as just the marketing tactics used to get people in, and back into, the digital door. With one Forrester survey finding that while 92% of B2B companies used personalization in marketing, only 54% personalized customer engagement.
Like with any courtship, putting more effort into the first impression than into maintaining the long-term relationship generally isn’t the best recipe for success. The most effective strategies use personalized content all along the customer journey.
This could be content that keeps people engaged after the first click, such as:
- persona-based messaging on hero banners and calls-to-action (CTAs),
- product recommendations based on browsing behavior,
- customer logos and testimonials that match their industry.
Content that makes purchasing decisions easier, such as:
- product pages that highlight attributes they care about (ingredients, sustainability, compatibility, warranties, etc),
- a feature comparison table populated by products they’ve engaged with,
- service recommendations based on their conversation with a chatbot.
Content that keeps loyal customers coming back, such as:
- an email with how-to guides featuring products they bought last week,
- product recommendations in their preferred styles and price points,
- notifications when their wish-listed items go on sale,
- custom B2B catalogs for logged-in users.
As well as all the content adjustments that make the experience “run as it should” that customers might not even recognize as personalization, such as:
- only showing products and services that are available in their region,
- adapting the experience to their browser and device,
- sending push notifications about their order status.
Why invest in content personalization?
In a 2023 survey from Twilio, 8 in 10 business leaders said that personalization leads to an increase in consumer spending, reporting that customers spend an average 38% more when their experience is personalized.
The business benefits of personalization increase as your strategies get more advanced. In a survey of 500 B2C executives, companies were categorized based on their personalization maturity level. When comparing personalization leaders with low-maturity brands (each group representing a quarter of respondents), the leaders were:
- 48% more likely to have exceeded revenue goals in the previous year
- 67% more likely to report increased purchase frequency
- 71% more likely to report improved customer loyalty
However, there can be a gap between the personalization expectations of brands and consumers. In one study that looked at how both sides define success, while 92% of retailers surveyed believe they effectively offer personalized experiences, only 48% of consumers agree.
So what do customers want out of personalization? According to Forrester’s October 2024 Consumer Pulse Survey:
- 62% want economic value (money saved or rewards earned)
- 36% want function value (useful products and services)
- 28% want experiential value (pleasant interactions and easy transactions)
- 15% want symbolic value (feeling appreciated and respected)
Degrees of personalization
Content personalization is the overarching strategy of transitioning from a static, one-size-fits-all customer experience to dynamically delivering the best-suited content to each user. Many personalization strategies combine a range of tactics that sit all along that spectrum.
So while some people (and personalization technology vendors) are sticklers for differentiating between tactics like customization, segmentation, and personalization, they all have useful applications and are going to impact each other in the overall path to personalization.
Customization vs personalization
In general:
- Customization is the way that users are able to modify the experience or product themselves, like adjusting notification settings, changing their region, bundling their own items, or favoriting products.
- Personalization is the adjustments that are made automatically.
Suppose a person goes out of their way to customize the experience. In that case, they’re sending very valuable signals, and it would be a waste not to use that information for further personalization. If they choose the vegan delivery box, or sign up for notifications about a team’s betting odds, or repeatedly place a particular brand’s products on their wishlist, then the content shown to them across the website, app, emails, and any other channel should reflect those preferences.
Personalization vs segmentation
In general:
- Segmentation groups people based on a distinct list of parameters or characteristics, typically controlled by manual rules and settings. The data used for segmentation is generally slow to change, like demographic data.
- Personalization targets an individual user and is typically controlled by automated rules and algorithms. Personalization can take advantage of fast-moving data, like browsing behavior, to adapt to changing user intent in real time.
Segmentation builds the foundation for a personalization strategy. Defining key user groups helps teams better understand the customer journey, hone marketing messaging, and decide what content to invest in. It’s also a good first step because you can get started with very minimal data (e.g., new and returning visitors) and gradually ramp up to much more complex strategies with users in multiple segments.