But first, what is personalization? Simply put, personalization is the use of data, customer information and technology to create tailored customer experiences. And while most marketers understand the value of personalization can provide, often they stray from implementing smart and often simple personalization tactics and miss out on the chance to grow the brands.
The Power of Personalized Customer Experiences
Truth is, today, personalization has proven to be powerful. For example, B2B personalization solutions provider Everage found that 88% of marketers believe that improved customer experience is a reason to prioritize personalization. Research by EConsultancy also shows that 74% of marketers cite personalization as the reason for elevated customer experiences. And when it comes to consumers, there are signs that a little personalization goes a long way to creating more satisfactory customer experiences. According to Statista, 90% of U.S. consumers find marketing content personalization “very” or “somewhat” appealing. When it comes to spending money, Zoominfo found that 77% of consumers had selected, recommended or paid more for a brand that prioritised a personalised customer experience.
Stats aside, personalization definitely pays dividend. And while there are many other benefits one could derive from a solid and well-planned website personalization strategy, here are 10 benefits of personalising your website.
10 Benefits of Website Personalization:
1. Stronger Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing, while a major aspect of leveraging content marketing, is often one of the most underutilised website personalization opportunities most brands have, and also the biggest challenge they face. HubSpot research uncovered that as much as 65% of brands struggle to generate leads. And to boot, website personalization that supports lead nurturing requires far less technology and heavy lifting to implement than most think. With a simple and well-planned nurturing cycle and the right content, brands can deliver highly-effective content experiences that lead to sales. By using powerful email marketing messaging based on conditions, and valuable content, it is possible to usher buyers to the next step of their journey based on their specific needs.
2. Smoother, More Effective Customer On-boarding
Customer onboarding can be a challenge for brands. In fact, new insights show that losing as much as 75% of your customers within their first week is possible. Today, few truly appreciate the balance between spam and truly valuable email marketing after the sales. But with the right amount of website personalization, you can focus on delivering a stellar onboarding experience for customers. It all starts with an understanding of your personas and what they really want from your solution. When you bed that down, you’re able to decrease churn and focus on extending customer lifetime value.
3. Shorter Sales Cycles
Driving sales online can be a slog, but personalization can make it less so. According to Accenture, 75% of consumers would buy from retailers that recognise them by name and recommended products or services based on previous purchases. While the spectrum of solutions for personalised sales experiences is broad, it is possible to implement anything from high-impact copy and website design, to recommendation software to help drive more sales to customers.
4. Stronger Brand Affinity
Brand affinity is a means of determining how much more one brand is preferred over another. And when it comes to website personalization, the ability to create experiences that influence brand affinity helps better position your brand. Through the use of surveys, for example, you could gather sentiment on how much more your brand or product is preferred over a competitor’s. These insights, coupled with other data points on how users interact with your brands can help shape future pricing strategies, product development, marketing campaigns for more competitive positioning.
5. Greater Brand Equity
Brand equity is defined as the perceived commercial value of your brand and the particular product or service you offer. Personalization has been shown to influence how consumers see brands. Research by SmarterHQ shows that 72% of consumers claim to only engage brands that provide personalised messaging. With personalised messaging at the heart of communications, you’re able to elevate your brand and product value in the eyes of your target market.
6. Increased Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is developed by consistently delivering positive brand experiences. Today, with tons of option and competitive markets, the need to leverage personalization is a must. In a survey conducted by Salesforce, 84% of customers stated that being treated like a person, not a number, is very crucial to winning their wallet share, proof that creating positive experiences can lead to more revenue.
7. Relevant Offers
While recommendations are great to have, and more and more customers want them, recommending the right products and services at the right time requires smart personalization. In fact, Akamai found that 74% of online consumers get frustrated with websites that present irrelevant ads, offers and promotions. The upside is that smarter, data-driven creative campaigns can help you target customers effectively and with the right offers.
8. Highly-Effective Calls to Action
While calls to action should be a staple for every type of marketing you produce, not all calls to action are created equal or generate the best results. Thing is, personalised calls to actions can be highly effective. Research indicates that they can perform over 200% better than generic calls to action. Through strategic A/B split testing campaigns and website personalization, you can draw closer and closer approximations to find the best converting calls to action. These insights can later be used to inform marketing content specifically designed to gather leads and drive more engagement throughout your buyer’s journey.
9. More Conversions
It’s no secret the landing, home and product pages are low-hanging fruits for highly personalised buyer experiences. When designed effectively, these key website pages can help brands deliver better conversions, especially with personalization being such a major drawcard. But to drive higher conversions, brands will need to be smarter about the way they present their solutions, and how accessible they are to consumers. For example, website analytics solution Crazy Egg uses a quick onboarding hack to drive signups. At a glance, it could seem hard to appreciate, but a closer look will show that they truly understand how their target audience thinks and what they want to be able to create better website results for their brands. Crazy Egg makes an offer on their homepage to see your site’s heatmap. While other heatmap software exists, it may not be as sophisticated as Crazy Egg’s. By entering your domain name, you can easily see what people are doing on your site.
Once you’ve entered your domain name, you’re sent to a free 30-day trial offer.
Next, you get to choose the free trial plan that you think will give you what you need, and then you get access to your heatmap.
To the untrained eye, this step-by-step process appears to push the sale hard, but it’s actually very smart. It gives users the chance to see all the Crazy Egg has to offer across their plans. It also uses social proof to help persuade more signups. By displaying logos of well-known brands prominently and above the fold, users feel more at ease about committing, even if it is for a free trial.
10. Deeper Customer Insights
Running effective personalization campaigns can’t happen without deep insights into data, the relationship between it and your buyer personas, and their behaviour. Today, there are many tools available that can be used to aggregate data from various sources to tell clearer stories about how your visitors interact with your website, brand, and ultimately make decisions to purchase your solutions. What’s important to note is that personalization is a continuous cycle. It requires a sound methodology for unpacking data and a keen eye for spotting trends in customer behaviour.
Conclusion
Website personalization is a must for brands. In a digital world where more people are turning to smartphones and tablets, creating personalised experiences enables growth through data-driven and creative marketing campaigns. But for brands to truly leverage their data and provide creative and engaging content and offers, they must know their customers. Without an intimate understanding of their audiences and their behaviour, brands will miss out on hidden but lucrative opportunities.
