Amazon’s market-leading approach to personalisation is often held up as an example for eCommerce marketers to replicate. And many try to. But how many actually manage to do so in a meaningful way?
A recent study conducted by Pure360 suggests that the tactics commonly used to implement personalisation may be too basic to improve results. In this article, we review this research and share our seven principles of intelligent personalisation.
Basic Personalisation Is Not Enough To Engage Consumers
For some brands, inserting a first name into an email is the extent of personalisation and this may be losing them revenue.
Our research found basic personalisation tactics to be less effective than some may assume. Only eight per cent of consumers are likely to engage with marketing that addresses them by name and a mere seven per cent are likely to engage with marketing that mentions their birthday.
Interestingly, our study also found half of consumers would be likely to engage more with retailers that send offers that are relevant and interesting to them. Following the principles of intelligent personalisation can ensure your messaging has these qualities.
Why Should Intelligent Personalisation Be A Business Priority?
The business case for intelligent personalisation is simple. Implementing will:
- Increase conversion rates
- Increase average order value
- Increase customer lifetime value
- Improve marketing ROI.
The Seven Principles Of Intelligent Personalisation
So, how do you move beyond the basics when it comes to personalisation? Here are seven principles to underpin your strategy.
1. Seamless
Modern customer journeys are complex. To reflect their non-linear nature, personalisation needs to work across devices and channels. It should also consider in-store transactions.
Your aim is to create a seamless customer experience across physical stores, digital devices, and multiple channels.
2. Contextual Relevance
Intelligent personalisation reflects an understanding of the context of your products and how this fits with the context of your customers.
Customer context includes:
- Demographics
- Location
- Commuting, working, relaxing
- Time of day, day of week
- Season
- Customer journey position
- Satisfaction.
The context of your products or service includes:
- Motivation
- Price
- Frequency of purchase
- How they are used
- Likelihood of repeat purchase.
3. Behavioural
Advanced personalisation targets behavioural personas, rather than demographic ones. These tell you who does what, when they do it, and why. Understanding these factors allows you to drive each persona to conversion more effectively.
Behavioural personas could be based on:
- Customer journey stage
- Customer lifetime value
- Frequency of purchase
- Satisfaction
- Marketing engagement
- Price sensitivity.
4. Real-time
Intelligent personalisation understands, reacts to, and optimises customer journeys in real-time. This recreates the one-to-one experience of being served in a physical store.
5. Dynamic
Next-level personalisation is about serving individual users dynamic content based on:
- Purchase history
- Preferences
- Demographics
- Browsing and buying behaviour
- Customer lifecycle.
6. Think ‘How’ Not Just ‘What’
Intelligent personalisation does not just consider what to personalise, but how to personalise it.
For example, Netflix not only personalises which programmes are recommended but also which artwork is used to promote each programme based on people’s viewing tastes.
7. Invisible
To avoid creeping your customers out, personalisation should be invisible. Don’t be tempted to show off every possible tactic you could use to follow customers around the web.
Personalisation should be an integral part of the customer experience, but not one that customers notice.
Takeaway
Basic personalisation no longer engages customers and it’s time to take personalisation to the next level.
Following our seven principles is your route to effective, intelligent personalisation capable of shaping customer behaviour. Implement these with the aim of improving customer experience and increased profits will be a natural by-product.
Kristian will be speaking about why consumers are demanding intelligent personalisation at the Figaro Digital Email Marketing & CRM Seminar taking place at The Hospital Club, Covent Garden, on Thursday 24 May 2018. Request your spot here.