Many digital marketers struggle with personalization, often not knowing where to begin or not seeing the results they expected.
Hesitation and frustration set in, and personalization tends to be put to the side, resulting in poor engagement, low conversion, and a general lack of success.
To avoid getting overwhelmed, follow these guidelines when mapping out your personalization strategy.
Define objectives
You need to clearly identify the marketing objectives of personalization to ensure they are in line with the company’s business strategy and to allow accountability post-campaign.
Identify PIE segments
Review the earlier section on how to prioritize using the PIE framework and map out which segment needs top priority and rank them accordingly to ensure that resources are used to proactively meet the objectives.
Connect segments to personalization goals
In addition to marketing objectives, each segment needs its own prioritization goals based on the segment’s needs and lifecycle stage.
Examine existing data
Look at all data sources, internal and external, to better understand customer behavior. The more data you have the better.
Determine key insights
For each priority segment, try to discern anything that can be associated with it. Perhaps it is how they arrive at the website, what content or pages they engage with. These nuggets may be helpful in determining which content, messages, or channels to use with the segment.
Map the journey
Discover the paths that visitors take through your website after they arrive. These behaviors may uncover fresh opportunities for personalization.
Target page components
Identify components in the key pages that are easier to personalize. It could be the top banner, a word in the headline, or perhaps a block in the side column. Ease of personalization is important to ensure efficiency for scalability.
Determine personalization rules
Create and apply the rules, conditions, and actions needed to determine what content is delivered to whom, when, and how. The more specific the rules, the better. As you add more rules, you may find ways to optimize them for efficiency.
Create content
Content should be based on the prospect’s situation. If they are at the top of the search funnel, deliver content that builds trust and can elicit intent. For partners and those in the sales funnel, deliver content designed to induce conversions.
Get the right personalization tool
The top reason why most B2B marketers do not start ecommerce personalization is because they do not have the right tools. Most ecommerce platforms include simple content management systems that do not meet the needs of larger, more complex marketing teams with intricate content strategies. It may be necessary to integrate a digital experience platform with artificial intelligence and marketing automation components that allow you to perform contextual marketing functions to all prospects across all channels.
