One-to-one marketing (or personalised marketing) is more important now than ever. But how do you effectively embrace personalisation even as the privacy revolution changes attitudes and regulations on targeting and cookies?
Here’s what you need to know:
Your prospects still desire a personalised experience with your brand — even if they don’t want you to track their data across the internet.
In fact, 80% of consumers say they are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalised experiences…
…yet only 15% of CMOs believe their organisations are on the right track. That means there are tremendous opportunities for companies that can successfully implement personalised marketing campaigns.
So, what does it take to master one-to-one marketing? Well, it’s more than slapping your prospect’s name in an email subject line and dubbing your marketing personalised.
Let’s take a closer look at the future of one-to-one marketing, so you can start implementing personalisation across all your digital channels.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, helpful, and engaging content to a specific audience to drive customer action.
When most people think of content marketing, they think of blog posts or articles (like this one.) But content can come in a variety of formats, including written, audio, and visual.
What makes content marketing unique from other forms of marketing is that it is not disruptive. You're not interrupting your buyer as they go about their day. With digital content creation, your target audience is actively searching for you and the valuable insight you provide.
Content marketing feels organic and natural (even though it follows a strategic formula.)
As Brian Clark stated, your target audience is already on a self-determined buying journey. They have a want or desire (your product or service), but they have questions along the way. When you provide fantastic content that solves your buyer's problems, you organically help them move closer to purchasing from you. Over time, you also become the trusted authority in your industry — and that is when you blaze past the competition.
In our world of information overload, there's enough average information floating around the internet. Luckily, your product or service isn't average. Create killer content that reflects this, and you'll gain the attention of your buyer.
What is one-to-one marketing?
Imagine the following scenario for a sec:
You walk into your local coffee shop. The barista smiles, greets you by name, then asks if you’d like your usual — they even remember you prefer whole milk and extra foam. You’re appreciative of the individualised attention. You tell your friends about this epic little spot, and you keep coming back once a week.
Now, what if every time you visited this cafe, the same barista treated you like any other first-time customer? You’d probably start to get a bit frustrated. You might keep going for convenience or if you really loved the coffee, but you certainly wouldn’t become a raving fan and loyal customer.
This is the power of personalisation — and the same idea applies to your digital marketing campaigns.
One-to-one marketing (or personalised marketing) is the process of delivering relevant, individualised messages to your prospects.
The most successful one-to-one marketing campaigns use real-time data and analytics to understand the customer and their buyer’s journey, then craft customised marketing messages specific to the prospect’s needs.
Traditional marketing vs digital marketing
Think about a billboard or magazine spread. These traditional marketing campaigns cast a wide net to capture the attention of a large group of people; however, they don’t speak to individual prospects on a personal level.
Thanks to digital transformation and sophisticated analytics, marketers now have ample tools available to craft customised messages that better target the needs of their prospects. And that’s a very good thing because studies show personalisation marketing benefits include:
- Increased visitor engagement
- Improved customer experience
- Improved brand perception
- Increased conversion rates
- Increased lead generation and customer acquisition
Remember, people don’t buy from businesses — they purchase from people and brands they like, know, and trust. Embrace one-to-one marketing to connect with your customers on a deeper level — and drive more loyal sales when you do.
One-to-one marketing strategies that work
Ready to improve your personalisation marketing strategies? Start with these four tips:
1. Invest in getting to know your customers
The first step to implementing personalisation marketing is understanding your customer’s changing needs.
Buyer personas are a brilliant place to start, but only if your personas are data-based (not fictional profiles built on assumptions and generalisations.)
Consider, too, where prospects are on their Buyer’s Journey. You must understand your customer’s evolving pain points and questions to effectively guide them to the right solution at the right time.
Finally, Voice of Customer (VoC) data provides impactful insights into your prospect’s needs in their own words. Live chat and customer surveys are two easy ways to get brand feedback while improving your customer’s experience.
2. Embrace agile marketing
Your business can no longer afford to take six months to create, approve, and implement a marketing campaign. Your customers will move on to a more personalised user experience from a business pivoting to meet their needs in real-time. In other words, embrace agile marketing or risk falling behind the competition.
Now, personalisation and agile marketing go hand-in-hand. Both focus on actual data to continually learn, optimise, and iterate marketing campaigns. Both prioritise meeting customers’ needs in a personalised, human way. And both mark a distinct mind-shift from broad advertising to customer-focused, value-based exchanges.
Personalised marketing isn’t just a campaign initiative — it’s a transformative shift in how your organisation views and communicates with customers. Embrace agile marketing and set your entire team up for lasting one-to-one marketing success.
3. Segment your email list
Have you ever purchased a webinar or course only to receive emails promoting the very same product a few days later? I have (on numerous occasions), and it’s a frustrating experience. Sure, I can ignore the emails. But what if the business treated me like an individual customer with unique needs — not another stranger on a long list of subscribers?
When it comes to one on one marketing, email personalisation pays big rewards. Every email marketing application worth using allows you to segment your subscribers into specific lists so you can send more targeted emails.
Rather than an email autoresponder that serves as a catch-all, consider separate, smaller email sequences that better meet the needs of your list segments. Behaviour-triggered emails, user subscriber tags, and personalised subject lines work well, too.
4. Create personalised landing pages and persona-focused content
Once you begin email personalisation, take the time to analyse where you’re sending your targeted traffic. For example, is it a high-converting landing page or a generic website home page?
Personalised landing pages that match your email marketing messages are ideal for converting readers into buyers. You’ll quickly speak to your prospect’s unique needs while better positioning your offer as the perfect solution.
Think about content personalisation in your content marketing strategy, too. Persona-focused content is an organic way to move leads closer to purchasing from you. Boost your content personalisation with these easy tips here.
The bottom line
Privacy updates and preferences will continue to impact personalisation capabilities. So, take data privacy concerns seriously. However, don’t underestimate the power of personalised marketing – both now and in the future.
Your customers expect more personalised content and marketing from your brand. Invest in an agile marketing team and real-time data to create sophisticated marketing messages that speak directly to your customers and improve your brand loyalty and conversion rates in the process.
