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The Effectiveness of Personalized Content

Making your customers feel like one in a million doesn’t happen by accident. It takes dedicated research, excellent marketing, and seemingly relentless exposures to your brand. But even if you question the value of the 12th email in a campaign, rest assured that your content is doing more than you think.

Personalized content delivers information in which the recipient is likely to be interested. When implemented strategically, it can increase response rates and the customer’s motivations to purchase. To master personalization, you can’t use the same cookie cutter content for every prospect.

People are naturally in different stages of their lives and have a wide array of experiences. This prompts the need for targeted content that addresses a person’s unique needs. When content is relevant to the user, you have a greater chance of grabbing their attention, and ultimately, getting more business.

Modern Marketing Has Gone Personal

Today’s consumers are keen on how they’re being treated. They know who’s trying their best to reach them personally vs. the ones whose efforts are resting on the back burner. Receiving generic content that has nothing to do with their demographic, needs, or interests will most likely lead to the delete button or a dismissing swipe.  

On the other hand, tailoring content to your customers’ interests shows how much you value them. It takes time, energy, and investment, but it pays off in many ways. Here are a few statistics to back up the effectiveness of personalized content.

1. More than half of consumers expect it.

Salesforce reports that by 2020, more than half (51 percent) of consumers will expect companies to anticipate their needs. Therefore, they will want the company to send them relevant content instead of doing the hard work of searching themselves.

Internet giants like Google reign supreme in the art of personalization, and we can all take some notes on what they do. Google uses personalized searches based on a user’s location and other stored data to form an individual profile.

This information prompts search results that are more likely to appeal to the user’s profile. Instead of generating a generic list based on just the keyword itself, the experience is tailored to the user’s unique location, search history, and other relevant data. Therefore, a “hair salon” entry from someone in Phoenix will populate different salons based on the user’s location compared to someone who enters the exact same keyword in Savannah.

Marketing your brand may not involve such elaborate data gathering, but you can certainly gather relevant information about your leads to create personalized campaigns. What works for your consumers will be unique to the nature of your business.

2. Customers are more likely to respond.

In an era in which you have only eight seconds or less to grab your audience’s attention, you need every advantage possible to win over your lead. When you deliver content that’s relevant to their current needs, you’ll experience more success due to a higher response rate.

According to a global poll by Marketo, 63 percent of respondents said they were “annoyed” by generic, old-fashioned content. It goes without saying that these respondents have no trouble tuning out these repetitive messages that don’t apply to them. On the other hand, 79 percent of the same people said they would only engage with an offer if it were personalized.

Receiving a warm email that contains information related to your interests, such as product recommendations, have been effective for companies like Netflix. The streaming service tracks user activity to find just the right shows that align with their viewing history. Instead of choosing a predictable title, their metrics match the user with the best shows according to their past genre preferences.

Users are more likely to respond to a brand that takes the time to connect them with what they actually want and need. Instead of annoying your leads, grow closer to them with personalized content. You may start getting more responses!

3. It motivates customers to buy … and keep on buying.

Receiving personalized suggestions for goods or services is also a fantastic motivation to buy. Data from Marketing Insider Group supports this trend. In its findings, 78 percent of U.S. internet users said that personally relevant content increases their intent to purchase. Meanwhile, Constellation Research reports that irrelevant or generic content generates an 83 percent lower response rate. These numbers make it clear that personalizing content is a worthy investment that’s far more likely to make you money.

For example, let’s say you’re a diaper subscription company. You have a customer who subscribed for baby diapers a year ago. However, according to your data, their child is about to turn two. Since this is a common age in which parents start considering potty training, this is your chance to send a timely email or postcard that advertises your toddler products.

Timing your personalized ads for training pants correctly can make the difference between you retaining a customer or losing her to a big-box retail store. This is just one way in which personalized marketing can motivate more purchases, ultimately increasing the customer’s lifetime value.

4. Even small steps go a long way!

According to HubSpot, even something as simple as a personalized call-to-action generates a convert 202 percent better than generic calls to action. This extra touch to meet the user doesn’t take much time to prepare, yet it has a significant impact on the number of new contacts you can gather.

Email is another powerful marketing channel. Since more people than ever have email on their smartphones, they can access email nearly anywhere. Monetate’s blog reports that personalized emails have transaction rates that are up to six times higher than generic emails. In addition, Campaign Monitor reveals that consumers are 26 percent more likely to open emails with personalized subject lines.

Now, imagine if you can take this a step further and integrate your new contacts into a personalized multichannel campaign. How far can you go with your business?

5. Your marketing becomes more efficient.

Personalized marketing doesn’t just work better than generic content, it also benefits your business in many ways. Here are some ways personalization makes your marketing more efficient:

  1. It reduces your acquisition costs by as much as 50 percent (McKinsey & Company).
  2. It can lift your revenue by 5 to 15 percent (McKinsey & Company).
  3. Personalized content increases the efficiency of marketing spending by 10 to 30 percent. (McKinsey & Company).
  4. Eighty percent of marketers say that personalized content is more effective than cookie-cutter campaigns (Demand Metric ).
  5. Traditional marketing costs 62 percent more than content marketing (Demand Metric).
  6. Content marketing generates up to three times as many leads compared to traditional marketing (Demand Metric).

6. Consumer spending increases.

When you grab your contacts’ attention and make them more motivated to buy, the next step is logical: increased consumer spending. According to data from The e-tailing group, using personalized marketing in multiple channels can increase the consumer’s overall spending by a whopping 500 percent!  

Campaign Monitor has also found that sales increase by an average of 20 percent when marketers give experiences tailored to the user’s interests.

7. Written content is still the most important to marketers.

Though there are many forms of content out there, Social Media Examiner’s Media Marketing Report reveals that 58 percent of marketers have observed that “original written content” is the most important. However, it’s vital to keep in mind that including images or video with your written content is highly recommended.

Today’s consumer is more visually driven than ever. Images grab their attention more than just text alone. However, the information contained in the text is something they also seek. Consider visual and written content the peanut butter and jelly of content marketing: you need both for the total package!

How to Get Started

If you’re feeling inspired but don’t know how to start, rest assured you don’t have to do this alone. Great marketing takes a village to implement. You may need to start from scratch and find a content strategist who can help you generate a solid marketing plan. Or, you may know what you want but just need a writer to do the work so you can focus on your business.

Though your needs will vary, the help is out there. A quick search online can connect you with many professionals who can help you create your next personalized content campaign.

Professional Writers on Call

Knowing what to do is one thing, but having the ideas and the “how” behind it can be overwhelming. At ContentWriters, we have account managers, writers, and editors who are ready to help you generate, create, and refine your next personalized marketing emails, social media posts, text, tweets, blogs, and more.

We can help you (or your strategist) select a writer that has experience in your industry. You’ll also benefit from:

  1. Free topic pitching: Writers who actually have experience in your field send over their ideas to help you find the perfect topic.
  2. Find your voice: Do you want to be personable and casual or take on the voice of thought leader? Our talented writers can match your brand’s voice.
  3. A constant advocate: You’ll have a dedicated account manager on your side to help you for any of your content needs.
  4. Easy access to your content: You’ll use an intuitive platform where you can view all the original content you ordered.
  5. One hundred percent satisfaction policy: If you’re not happy with what you get, we’ll do everything to make it right. This includes unlimited revisions!

It takes a team to make great personalized content. Let our writers take off some of your load and deliver you original, relevant content for your next campaign.

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