The Power of Personalisation in 2022

For many brands, 2022 signifies a fresh start in their marketing strategy.

They have been fighting fires, pivoting, and adapting for the past two years. And many have struggled to keep their businesses afloat around lockdowns, fluctuating buying behaviour, staff shortages, and delivery delays.

We are all adapting to the ‘new normal’, and so brands now feel more prepared to strategise around the decreasing restrictions. And engage with the new opportunities an increase in online purchasing brings.

But as well as all of the above, brands are also working with new types of consumers, innovations in technology, and increased buyer expectations.

Sounds like a lot, right?

Fortunately, there’s a secret weapon that can help brands to tackle all of the above. And make 2022 the positive year they’ve been waiting for.

Personalisation.

Read on to find out more.

The power of personalisation

So we’ve hailed personalisation as the saviour of brands and marketers in 2022, but why?

Builds a sense of community

One of the most powerful benefits to personalisation in 2022 is the ability to build a sense of community between a brand and their audience.

The past two years have been difficult for us all. Many of us have felt disconnected from our peers, unable to socialise as normal. And of course, unable to experience the high street shopping experience as we once did.

Personalisation can emulate a face-to-face relationship. Helping consumers to feel connected to brands on a more personal level. And build a more engaging experience than has traditionally been offered online.

Boosts customer engagement

A significant 74% of consumers get frustrated when brands continue to send generic, one-size-fits-all communications.

Without utilising personalisation in marketing, brands are sending out advertising and communications that are irrelevant to the recipient. This could include the wrong messages, products, and locations.

This suggests to the recipient that the brand simply doesn’t care about them. Or care enough to understand who they are, where they are, and what they want.

By using personalisation, brands can improve customer engagement by showing them that they understand each and every individual. And can incorporate products and services which are of genuine interest to the consumer.

This means that the recipient doesn’t have to trawl through endless, meaningless messaging to find what they want. Instead, it is handed to them on a plate, streamlining their buying journey and improving their relationship with the brand.

Impacts purchasing decisions

Personalisation can have a drastic impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions.

In fact, 59% of consumers report that personalisation directly influences the items they decide to purchase and the brands they decide to purchase from.

This makes perfect sense, by promoting products that the brand is sure the consumer will want, this eliminates various stages of the buying process, particularly researching and browsing.

And of course, the further along the buying cycle the customer is, the less likely they are to abandon their purchase or turn to a competitor.

Improves customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is more important than ever for brands

As an increasing amount of consumers shop online, competition is fierce. And as we all know, retaining customers is cheaper than bringing on new ones. So keeping customers happy is a top priority for many businesses

12% of online consumers prefer to shops with brands due to their use of personalisation. Making it an essential tactic for any savvy marketer.

That’s because personalisation serves the customer exactly what they want. They know that any communication they receive will be meaningful and useful. Instead of more ‘junk’ emails and meaningless marketing comms.

And when a customer can easily get exactly what they want from a specific brand, why look elsewhere?

Offers audience insight

For brands, the process of personalised marketing actually improves their knowledge of their own audience.

The more data the brand collects to utilise in personalised marketing, the more that they learn. This helps to influence marketing and business-wide strategy and decisions. Helping the brand to understand their audience’s wants and needs, and tailor their offering to suit.

And of course, the more personalisation used, the more customers will engage, and the more a brand learns.

Win, win.

How to incorporate personalisation into your marketing mix

To successfully incorporate personalisation into your marketing, there are different elements and types of personalisation that need to be recognised.

Data insight

Let’s start with data, which is one of the most (if not the most) important element of personalisation. Without data, your personalisation will fail. So ensure to get this step locked down before moving on.

Combine data sources

For most businesses, data sits in lots of different sources. ESPs, CRMs, spreadsheets, even notepads. To ensure consistent, accurate personalisation, all of these data sources need to be combined into one singular place that is accessible by your personalisation tools and software.

Data insight

Now that data is combined into a central place, brands can start utilising this information to gain a fuller understanding of who their audience is, and build highly personalised campaigns to engage with them.

With the use of centralised data and insight, brands can begin building basic personalisation into their campaigns. Incorporating first name, segmentation, and identifying which campaigns and products are most likely to engage their target audience.

RFM segments

As mentioned, segmentation is a form of personalisation that can be executed as soon as data is centralised and understood. RFM segments are one of the most useful segments that brands can use.

RFM stands for recency, frequency, and monetary, and allows brands to segment their audience based on how recently they purchased, how frequently, and how much they spend.

So, brands can promote their highest ticket items for their highest spenders. Or send a VIP campaign to their regular customers.

Behavioural targeting

Moving on from using basic data and segmentation for personalisation, brands can utilise behavioural targeting tactics to automate emails based on more detailed demographic data alongside consumer behaviour, such as what they browse and purchase.

Basket abandonment

One of the most commonly used forms of behavioural targeting is abandoned form and basket reminders.

And with good reason, roughly 70% of website visitors abandon baskets, resulting in brands losing valuable sales in the early stages of the buying process.

With the use of an email abandonment series, brands can win these customers back after they have abandoned. Reminding the consumer of what’s in their basket, and encouraging them to check out.

Alternatively, brands can use this opportunity to recommend similar products that the recipient may be interested in, if what’s in the basket wasn’t right for them.

Post-purchase follow-ups

However, if you have encouraged a recipient to make a purchase, the work isn’t over.

Once the customer has handed over their money, they’ll be keen to know their purchase has gone through and is being delivered as promised.

Reassure customers by sending them regular updates regarding their order and its delivery. This should include purchase confirmation and delivery updates. But can also incorporate post-purchase review requests, to encourage the recipient to rate their specific purchase whilst they’re still highly engaged.

Replenishment reminders

Repeat customers are a brand’s best friend. So for those that buy the same product on a regular basis, brands should ensure they are continuously engaged and purchasing. Otherwise, they risk them forgetting a purchase, or turning to a competitor.

Automated replenishment campaigns monitor customers’ regular purchases, and send them a reminder when they’re due to repurchase.

This works particularly well for medication, cosmetics, groceries, but also subscriptions.

The benefit of communicating with them early is brands can lock in that purchase before they turn elsewhere. But it also acts as a helpful reminder to the customer in their shopping journey.

In-stock notifications

An easy way to lose a potential customer is to not have their chosen item in stock.

This will leave the customer disappointed, and they will likely turn to a competitor.

Brands can reduce the chances of this happening by sending in-stock notifications based on the products that consumers have clicked on, or tried to add to their basket. These communications will be sent when the specific item is back in stock, encouraging the consumer to revisit the site and make their purchase.

Dynamic content

Dynamic content is the marketer’s secret weapon when it comes to personalisation.

It enables brands to send out mass communications, and include sections that will automatically populate based on the recipient’s specific demographic, behavioural, and purchase data.

This could include personalised banners, real-time product recommendations, tailored language or currency based on location, and even weather-related content.

Product recommendations

An enormous 80% of consumers actually want to receive product recommendation communications based on their past behaviour.

By utilising consumers’ behavioural, purchase, and location data, brands can incorporate dynamic content into their emails and on their landing pages, this will automatically populate with content personalised to each individual.

This could include related or alternative products, relevant add-ons, or upselling items at the point of purchase.

Pricing and availability

There’s nothing more frustrating than going to make a purchase, just to realise it is sold out or the price has increased.

Pricing and availability of products are constantly changing. And keeping up manually is a near-impossible task.

With the use of dynamic content, brands can promote real-time pricing and availability in their email communications and on product pages. This saves the marketer time, is useful information for the customer, and also adds a sense of urgency for items that are selling out or are on offer.

Geotargeting

Geotargeting is a surprisingly underutilised personalisation tactic, but it’s actually one of our favourites.

Brands can use consumer’s individual location data alongside dynamic content to automatically serve up relevant information, based on the consumer’s location.

This could include promoting the closest stores, recommending products based on the weather, or populating the correct language and currency.

Brands can even include personal weather updates as a fun feature in their emails or on their website, this is especially useful for travel brands communicating an upcoming trips.

Are you looking to up your personalisation game in 2022?

At Pure360, we’re experts in personalisation. Whether it be via email or website.

With the help of our all-in-one AI email & web marketing platform, alongside our expert Customer Success Team, we can help you to become industry leaders in 2022. Get in touch to find out more.