Content marketing is one of the best digital marketing investments a company can make. From creating content in order to grow organic traffic and boost SEO, to sending prospects useful information to help them make a buying decision, content marketing is an important piece of sound digital marketing and demand generation practices.
But what is “personalized content”? This is a term that’s grown heavily in popularity over the last several years. What does it mean? What’s it used for? What’s an example?
This blog post aims to concisely answer those questions. Let’s begin!
What is Personalized Content?
Personalized content is about creating unique digital experiences for prospects and customers to help them achieve a desired outcome, like purchasing your product or service or engaging with your company. The content is tailored for individuals (what it consists of and its delivery) based on demographic, behavioral, and contextual data that’s been collected.
Demographic data includes your typical information, like age, gender, interests, and so on. Behavioral data includes information about how a person interacts with your website. Are they new to your website? Are they a returning visitor? Have they signed up for something before, like a webinar or demo? And lastly, contextual data refers to data like time of day, what type of device was used, and so on.
Collecting these types of data is vital to creating personalized content. Without it, there can be no personalization.
Examples of Personalized Content
There are many ways your business can use personalized content to create unique experiences for consumers. Here are two common examples:
Example 1: Web Pages Personalization
Your business can create pages on your website that are personalized, as in they change based on who is viewing the page. For example, let’s say your organization sells software that provides valuable information about local weather conditions.
In order to personalize your users’ experiences and increase leads and sales, you create three different versions of a landing page. One is designed for users located in the northeast, one for users located in the south, and one is more of a general page that can serve everyone else.
Using a marketing automation platform like Marketo Engage or HubSpot, you could have these different versions of your page show to users based on their location, maximizing the relevance of your content and its impact!
Example 2: Email Marketing Personalization
Another example of personalized content is sending personalized emails to subscribers/prospects/customers/website visitors based on a variety of factors (data). You could set up a sophisticated marketing strategy where you email users certain types of content based on how they interact with your website or where they are at in the buying stage.
For example, let’s say your company’s website has a repeat visitor who displayed interest in your weather software, and later read a blog post on the site about your software’s pricing. To enhance that person’s digital experience and help guide them through the buyer journey, your marketing systems send that person an email that addresses her by name and details your software’s pricing along with a list of existing customers who are in the same industry.
That’s personalization, and that’s valuable to that individual!
Why Content Personalization Matters
Does content personalization matter? Is it worth it? Statistics and changes in consumer behavior suggest the answer is yes.
Content personalization matters because consumers are becoming more interested in personalized experiences. According to an excellent article by McKinsey titled, The value of getting personalization right—or wrong—is multiplying, “71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions” and “companies that grow faster drive 40 percent more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts.”
And today, many marketers are realizing the importance of personalized content and doing their best to adjust. According to a 2021 article by marketing tech company Hubspot, “message personalization is the #1 tactic used by email marketers to increase engagement rates.”
Personalized content no only matters, it may become essential for many businesses to properly market and compete in their respective industries.
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