Personalised marketing is a form of marketing that seeks to individualise the experience for each client or prospect as much as possible, based on exhaustive research and analysis to gather as much data as possible about each client, to learn about their tastes, desires and needs, and thus be able to recommend the products and services that best suit that person, all within the margins of legality, of course.
Of course, all within the margins of legality. How is it possible to access a person's privacy in a legal way? By asking permission. The fundamental of personalised marketing is transparency and truth, telling the customer from the very beginning what you want to look at from their searches, lists, downloads, profiles, photos, etc. As well as specifying what you want it for, what you will do with that information once you have it and what will happen to it once you have used it.
Now, this variation of marketing also has the frenetic speed of today. You don't just throw a pop-up message at the customer saying "Can we access your likes and dislikes? Yes or No." In that case, everyone would probably say no. Instead, if you offer as a prerequisite for accessing a site a long and extended list asking for permission to enter your privacy and specifying all of the above, it is very likely that the user will not read it and click directly on the accept button. This is why we are often surprised when we get such personalised and targeted ads .
The first premise, therefore, is the customer's consent to access these levels. Once permission is obtained, a technology is needed to collect the data that are of interest to the brand. These change depending on the specific objective of the marketing strategy, but, in general, they are usually:
- Lifestyle
- Demographics
- Spending levels
- Most purchased products
- Purchase patterns
- Where they spend the most time
- What interests them and what they learn about
- How they prefer to shop
Once this data has been collected, it is segmented into databases with personalised variables to group these customers. Without organisation and strategy, it is not possible to carry out a good personalised marketing exercise. Part of it is to analyse the data obtained correctly and to know how to project it afterwards. It follows, of course, that a specific team is necessary to carry out this marketing strategy.
Personalised marketing delves into a very personal and intimate knowledge, it is about accessing the deepest material desires of customers and it goes without saying that not everything fits for everyone. Part of the effort should be concentrated on personalising the variables according to the tasks and starting again with each campaign, as it will be different according to the company's objective.
Now that the data is segmented and the strategy is designed, it is time to get it to the customer. This is another key step in marketing personalisation. Part of knowing the customer is based on getting to know which channel will be the most appropriate to capture their attention. Would a customer trust a movie recommendation simply by seeing it advertised on Google or would it have more effect if they receive an email with an offer to go and see it?
These are some of the most typical channels for personalised marketing:
- Email newsletters
- Preference-based ads
- Newsletter
- Offers based on past purchases
- Personalised name ads.
It might seem so far that it is only the company that benefits from this variation of marketing, but the reality is that personalisation also brings improvements for customers. They segment their own searches, save time browsing through thousands of options, are generally more satisfied with their purchases and strengthen their tastes, get to know other brands, etc. Moreover, thanks to this modality, the customer strengthens his relationship with the brand, which also generates satisfaction for him, as well as greater reliability. But it is also true that sometimes the algorithm generated feeds back into one aspect of the customer's personality and it can be frustrating for him to constantly receive the same stimulus.
This is a fine line. Customers are as routine in their shopping as they are in other aspects of their lives. They rarely make changes, and when they do, they are usually small variations on the same thing. So when there is a big change, a 180-degree turn, personalised marketing must be able to detect it. For example, if a customer starts looking for information on cars, houses, baby items, a holiday destination...
Extradigital
Part of personalised marketing comes from those whimsical twists and turns that can evaporate if not reinforced. Thinking of going on holiday to London? Look at the cheapest flights this company can offer you.
On a numerical level, suffice it to say that the number of sales grows exponentially with personalised marketing. It is easy to understand that if you offer each customer the product they want, isolated from the rest and in front of them, they are much more likely to buy it, as opposed to what would happen if they had to do their own search, also among competitors, and dive through many items or services that are not what they want and that can end up tiring them out and leading them to abandonment.
It might seem that it is all sales-oriented, but personalised marketing goes beyond that. It also seeks, once it has managed to transform a prospect into a customer, to tie them to its side for as long as possible. The company offers all the possible comforts, personalisations and individualisations that make the experience with the service or product the most enriching relationship possible. Think, for example, of the recommendations made by Youtube, Spotify or Netflix. These are not campaigns aimed at the purchase of a product, as you have already acquired it if you have access to it, but they do seek to make your experience using it as personalised as possible.
