5 reasons content personalization will get you sales this Christmas

Open your email. It’s likely that you have a couple of promotional mailers and newsletters. It’s also likely that they’ll stay unopened unless they have a really catchy heading or are toting some kind of crazy discount. The one thing they’re probably not is personal. In fact, you’re receiving the exact same content as everyone else and (to be honest) it’s getting a little boring. When everything looks and feels the same, you have to question what brands and businesses can do to get sales this festive season. The answer begins with customer-unique content.

1. Break through the noise

Here are two key facts: 81% of consumers want brands to get to know them better. Added to that, 87% say that personalized content impacts their perception of a brand. In order to move away from generic marketing messages and mailers, you need to understand your audience better. The best way to do that is by giving your customers a tailored experience. Investing in personalization may seem like an expensive and overwhelming task, but technology has made it more attainable. We’ve come a long way from “any color as long as it’s black”. Consumer behavior is constantly changing and that means brands and businesses must adapt new technologies to meet new forms of consumption. Users no longer want something to simply be sold to them - to break through the noise, you need to show a buyer what they need.

2. Personalization is humanization

One of the best ways to humanize the digital customer journey is through personalization. While innovative uses of technology like augmented or virtual reality can spark interest, it’s the emotional connection which keeps customers coming back. It’s simple: consumers want to spend their hard-earned money with companies that understand them. Know your audience, know what questions they have, and know which stage they’re in the buyer journey. When you can identify each customer’s individual needs, you’re effectively “humanizing” the customer experience.

3. Building better loyalty

According to a recent survey, 65% of business buyers are likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t make an effort to personalize communications to their business. To generate real sentiment, a brand needs to stand out from the crowd. Today’s digital consumers are not going to be impressed with generic marketing. They are used to receiving marketing on mass and can easily tell when something is simply sales. Real brand loyalty relies on emotion. It’s the experience you give your customers and by personalizing their experience across digital, they’ll keep coming back.

4. Smarter data

How do you solve a problem like oversaturation? Content personalization relies on data but collecting user data is not enough - you have to use it where it matters. According to a Forbes study, companies that adopt data-driven marketing are more likely to have an advantage over the competition and increase profitability. In fact, they’re six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year. A good marketing strategy should include using customer data to deliver smarter communication based on interests and behavior. One of the most effective way to humanize the customer experience is by personalizing content and as a result, data collected for personalization facilitates humanization. Delve deeper to make your data work for you: the right data sets will allow you to define a customer space that you can own.

5. The right time, the right place

As we approach the festive season, decision-makers (in other words, your potential buyers) are overwhelmed with communications from businesses and brands in a battle to win sales. And this Christmas it’s even tougher because more people are online than ever before thanks to the coronavirus outbreak - marketers saw a ‘mini-boom’ in sign-ups for both newsletters and subscriptions. This is why delivering the right piece of content to the right person at the right time is paramount. Your marketing strategy needs to make sense, show authenticity and makes customers feel understood because ultimately, users want brands to understand when they should be approached… but also when they shouldn’t. Through content personalization, you’ll be able to connect products or services with the right audience and send the right messages at the right time.

Personalized content marketing is one of the best ways for brands and businesses to stand out from the competition. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work anymore - your customers know if they’re just another name on a list. Creating content that maps the user journey and moves the needle at scale sounds daunting but the return on investment (ROI) for any brand that commits to content personalization is evident. Investing in personalization works because it’s a natural extension of effective content marketing and should be a key part of your marketing strategy going into the festive season and beyond.