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The fear of most companies starting, brands, service providers and those already in existence is usually, ‘how to market’ their products and services, reach their target audiences and rake in sales.
The quest to compete and win in this highly dense and saturated business world is real and isn’t dying down anytime soon. Due to this, companies are exploring various ways to remain *relevant* in their line of business and expertise. Companies are also striving to top sales charts by spending millions of dollars on various marketing techniques and solutions to promote their businesses.
We all have our data footprints scattered over the world wide web. In this regard, digital marketers and data miners dig through and now have access to a wealth of data that can be analyzed and interpreted in so many different contexts. These data are used to create personas, predict human behaviors and therefore digital marketers are taking full advantage of this.
Consumers are bombarded with so much information these days as a result. Consumers sometimes find it a hustle to filter through the lot to find what solutions or products work best for them. The question of whether the information digital marketers throw at their target audience is needed is another aspect to ponder on.
Thanks to technology, and increase in the number of active internet users, the traditional ways of marketing and sales have gone through countless revolutions. Honestly, no one solution or formula works for everyone. In the same way, it is important to find ways to reach your target audience with relevant information instead of those targeted at the masses. Be it a college ad, online shopping, hospital, entertainment, etc.
The question of personalization in marketing then comes into play. What is personalization in marketing? How does it work? How can we implement this method in marketing? What tools and strategies are available? What are the pros and cons?
In this regard, Personalization marketing can be referred to as a type of marketing where the needs and preferences of individual consumers are taken into consideration and tailored so that the right product or services are marketed to them at the right time. This strategy helps reach individuals with specific needs, builds empathy that makes them feel heard. This, in turn, results in a high probability of converting them into a buying customer in order to increase revenue and also build credibility for retention and growth.
Think of it as more like helping manage a customer through their journey. To do this you can apply strategies such as advertising, physical and digital experiences for customer delight.
Current trends
Digital Marketing Companies are using various technologies and strategies to include personalization in their marketing efforts. Among such is the use of machine learning, AI, neural marketing to create personalized videos and do market segmentation for targeting and re-targeting to improve personalization.
The understanding that the way Person A buys a car or make-up is different from how person B does it is important. So learning how to tailor content for every individual will be the way forward. Digital marketers use personalization to grab the full attention of their target audience with specially designed sales cycles.
Cons
In retrospect, people have reservations when it comes to personalization. The same way the traditional “one ad fits all” campaigns have proven to be not as effective as it used to. Come to think of it people feel watched and assume their phones are listening in or there's someone is keeping tabs on them with every conversation and therefore do not trust the system and are raising concerns.
A personal experience was when my dad called to inform me sometime last year about my grandmother passing away on Christmas day. After the long talk and consolation, I opened my Instagram to read a comment someone had written on a post only to find AliExpress advertising coffins to me. OMG! What perfect timing, I gasped in shock wondering how that could even be possible. Similar to reactions from most people, I felt my privacy was breached. Even though I was very impressed with the technology and processes going on at the back end of my phone. I sincerely applaud how far technology has come with all these suggested ads targeted at me. I must say I'm impressed with the result but not the process. I don't trust the process simply because I don't know where data about me is collected and how it is handled. I would appreciate it if marketers and advertisers are transparent with their processes and how other's personal information is handled.
Conclusion
Yes, everyone deserves a little attention to make them feel special. Therefore if personalization is what it takes to gain more eyeballs, then why not?
We know some personalization marketing strategies are getting out of hand these days. So, why don’t you join the ongoing conversation by sharing some of your interesting experiences and favorite memes by contributing to our post on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram with the caption: "Personalization marketing be like …" with hashtags #performars #personalizationMarketingBeLike and tag us.
Stay tuned for the second part of this blog as we delve deeper into the subject. Also, check out Hyper-Personalization for further research related to this topic.
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