- March 16, 2017
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Nothing Personal, But Ditch Personalization for Greater Marketing Relevance
Companies like Amazon and Netflix have created industry-defining models for doing business, by not only supplying your immediate need, but drawing you back in for purchase after purchase by showing you what people like you have historically bought or searched for. But if the algorithm is off, just a little, customers can sour on it: up to 74% say that get annoyed enough to leave a site if they’re shown products that don’t match their interests.
Over time, it’s relevance, not personalization that can help integrated marketers build a stronger, longer relationship with customers. Here are a few considerations to help your marketing stay relevant and resonate with prospects.
Don’t Personalize: Persona-lize
Sure, being able to send out a perfectly addressed email blast may open the door, but what will win customers is targeted information that addresses relevant pain points and where they are in the customer journey. In other words, “persona-lize.”
Start by writing detailed personals that flesh out your customer categories as much as possible. As content marketing expert Robert Rose puts it, “When your audience wonders, ‘How did anyone know I needed to see this right now?’ that’s when you win.”
Put Your Content in Context
Next, perform a content audit to analyze what you’re saying to your customers. Look for messaging you can repurpose to create a shared sense of context. This is another point where relevance rules out over personalization: it’s likely that there’s overlap in your customer types’ priorities, and being able to message to those priorities should be your priority.
Media is as Important as Message
What relevance really means is the right customer getting the right message at the right time—which requires understanding how your customers want to get their information. If your product is technical or unique, consider crafting a video to demonstrate its benefits to buyers, instead of using a brochure. And integrated marketers should also think about which social channels serve them, and their customers, best.
Relevance Best Practices
Pampers knocks it out of the park for relevance: their entire marketing strategy is based on catering to distinct types of customers during specific times of parenthood. To get a better idea of how to make yourself essential to your customers, take a look at these other articles:
IKEA’s Masterful New Ad Campaign Taps Deep Into Customer Needs
Take Your Customers on a Fantastic (Email Marketing) Voyage
Business Marketing Strategy: Low Prices or High Quality?
