Are you pushing for increased investment in personalisation from your business? If so, you’re not alone.
Many marketers are seeking support (and budget) from key stakeholders to move their personalisation strategy forward.
But what does a good business case for personalisation look like? What should you highlight to get buy-in from your marketing director, CMO, or CEO?
Read on to find out as we explore the essential elements of a personalisation business case. We’ll also discuss how you can present yours effectively.
Eight reasons to make personalisation a business priority
Here are eight business reasons you can use to build a business case for personalisation.
1. Consumers expect brands to personalise
Consumers expect brands to personalise. According to Salesforce, seventy-two percent of consumers say they expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations.
Brands that rely on one-size-fits-all messages are missing a trick. No two customers are the same. Personalisation allows you to tailor your messaging so that it more relevant to each individual customer.
Recent research conducted here at Pure360 found that over half of consumers would be more likely to engage retailers that send them interesting or relevant offers.
2. Consumers make decisions in real-time
When consumers are online, their buying intentions shift in real-time according to what you present them with.
Personalisation is your opportunity to shape their decision making, based on real-time behavioural data. This replicates the one-to-one experience an assistant would give them in a brick and mortar store.
Nearly 60 percent of people want real-time personalised promotions and offers as they browse your website, according to Accenture. Brands that fail to personalise may be leaving money on the table.
3. Consumers prefer brands that personalise
In the digital age, consumers are polyamorous when it comes to their relationship with brands. Persuading consumers to form (and keep) a preference for your brand is no mean feat.
Businesses are often looking for ways to influence brand preference. Personalisation is one they should add to their list.
According to Swirl Networks, 88 percent of people prefer shopping with retailers who offer personalised cross-channel experiences.
4. Personalisation improves website conversion rates
One of the most persuasive business reasons for personalisation is that it drives more visitors to covert. According to Econsultancy, 93 percent of companies see an uplift in conversion rates using personalisation.
With increased conversions comes more revenue. This is supported by our own experience here at Pure360. Our customers see an average 22 percent sales uplift using our personalisation technology.
5. Personalisation increases average order values
Not only does personalisation help get customer over the line, but it can increase how much they spend with you in each transaction.
Cross-selling and upselling using personalised product recommendations is an effective way to increase average order values.
A case study by InternetRetailing notes that Notonthehighstreet.com boosts average order value by a third through personalised recommendations.
6. Personalisation improves email engagement
Personalised email content makes your messaging more relevant and increases engagement. Increase engagement means more customers are likely to go on to transact with you.
Personalised emails deliver six times higher transaction rates than non-personalised emails, according to Experian.
7. Personalisation increases customer lifetime value
Done well, personalisation enhances customer experience and entices customers to spend more at each stage of their journey with your brand. This is a powerful way to increase the overall value each customer represents to your brand.
According to Econsultancy, 64 percent of companies rate customer experience as the best tactic for improving customer lifetime value, followed by better use of data and personalisation.
8. Personalisation improves marketing ROI
Personalisation is a smart way to ensure you get more bang for your buck when it comes to marketing spend.
Designed to boost engagement and conversions, it follows that personalisation can help you increase return for every pound spent.
According to McKinsey, personalisation can increase the efficiency of marketing spend by ten to thirty percent.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that personalisation benefits every aspect of your marketing efforts.
Our client Luke1977, doubled their revenue from online marketing with personalisation. Have a read of our case study to find out how personalisation supported and improved every aspect of their strategy.
How to present your personalisation business case
We’ve equipped you with eight data-backed business reasons to support your case for personalisation. But how should you present these to your boss?
Here’s some guidance on how to present a business case for personalisation.
- Start with a problem: Pick a business problem that your stakeholder will relate to. What keeps your boss awake at night? What are the existing problems you are already trying to solve?
- Present a vision: Use storytelling to bring it to life.
- Choose the right KPIs: Hone in on how personalisation will improve KPIs that you already measure. What are the numbers you report on each month?
- Use stats to support your business case: There are plenty listed in this article. Choose the stats that will resonate with the stakeholder.
- Use your own data: Show the potential uplift from implementing personalisation. For example, how increasing average order values would impact monthly revenue.
- Recognise the impact on customers: Marketing KPIs are important but also describe how customers will benefit from personalisation.
- Keep it concise: Avoid using jargon and make it interesting.
- Present more than one solution: Show you’ve considered multiple ways to solve the problem. Of course, be sure to come back to your preferred solution.
- Outline an implementation plan: Show how your vision can become a reality in clear steps.
- Ask for advice: Find out how others in your prganisation built successful business cases. Ask if you can see their presentation. Did they use lots of visuals? Was it data heavy?
Takeaway
We hope that you come away from reading this post with a clear understanding of how to build a business case for personalisation.
These are the key points to remember:
- Your customers expect you to personalise
- It will increase website revenue
- It will reduce customer acquisition costs and increase customer lifetime value
- It will improve the ROI of your existing marketing efforts.
Once you’re speaking the language of your stakeholder, they’ll be hard pushed to not see the value of personalisation.
If you’re looking to invest in personalisation, then why not check out what our own personalisation platform. can offer. As we mentioned earlier, our customers see a 22 percent uplift in revenue.
