Content Personalization: A Guide to What it is and How to do it

Content personalization is an effective digital marketing and branding strategy. It matches online content, such as web pages, emails, and retargeting ads, to segmented audiences. Essentially, content is tailored to the characteristics and behaviors of individuals most likely to want a particular service or product. This dynamic, personalized content transforms information into something an individual can engage with and gain satisfaction from because it resonates with them. With its increased popularity over the years, personalized and/or predictive online engagement in some form or another has become the norm. Here’s the best way for you to get started. 

What is Content Personalization?

Personalized content marketing helps drive online traffic to a website and improve product and brand awareness. Customized content strategies are based on data collected about your identified audience. They use this information to increase organic and paid traffic. This is done by delivering appealing product and service information to those most likely to engage with it. Content personalization to target a specific audience is also known as one-to-one marketing.

5 Types of Data Used to Create Personalized Content

1. Demographics, for example, age range, relationship status, income and education.
2. Geographic location.
3. Type of device being used.
4. Historical behavior, eg. clicks and time on a site.
5. Web browsing history and previous search queries.

Why Use Personalized Content?

The main benefit of content personalization is that it works. It can be applied to any digital marketing strategy and has been shown to improve user engagement from the onset. Research shows that those who use personalized content generate up to 40% more revenue than companies that choose not to. 

Segmenting an audience means creating the opportunity to stand out amidst the blitz of digital advertising and resonate with a potential consumer. 76% of consumers report that a non-personalized interaction is frustrating and off-putting. Despite this, around three-quarters of marketers don’t use information based on consumer data when developing their digital marketing strategies. Consequently, using personal content is advantageous within a highly competitive online marketing environment.

Examples of Successful Content Personalization 

Most companies and organizations that release newsletters or email newsletters increase their content’s appeal by addressing subscribers personally. Personalized advertising campaigns are based on a selected (segmented) audience’s interests and behaviors which makes them more successful. Brand quizzers are an effective and popular way to collect preference information. Companies that do this use this data to improve product recommendations and brand resonance.

Successful online platforms, such as Amazon and YouTube, use algorithms to automatically suggest individually appropriate products to their users. These algorithms are based on a customer’s page viewing and purchase history. Algorithms also inform retargeting ad campaigns, popup adverts and emails, that reach out to previous users.  It is commonplace for a streaming service, such as Spotify or Netflix, to base recommendations on a user’s history. Doing so has been shown to make a user’s experience easier. Resulting in increased brand loyalty and return rates.

Personalized search results present users with selected results tailored to their interests. Browsers often default to this setting. This impacts organic search visibility, traffic and conversions. It means the success of a digital marketing campaign can be determined by the extent of content personalization.

What are Content Personalization Tools?

There are many content personalization tools to choose from and they are all data-driven. The right fit is determined by who your target audience is and what type of product or service your brand offers. Therefore, collecting the correct consumer data is vital when designing a content personalized strategy.

Online paid and free content marketing tools are readily available to users.  For example, Google Optimize or Hubspot. Cookies assist in delivering personalized content to web browsers. They can result in a more user-relevant brand interaction and website experience. Two other ways that companies personalize a user’s experience are by using tools that profile users and via collaborative filtering. Data analysis tools capture past data and use insights based on this data to predict future interactions.

Strategies for Effective Content Personalization

Google regularly alters and updates its algorithms and preferred content formats. Customer’s personal preferences adjust according to what apps they use and their social media feeds. The result is an ever-changing digital landscape that requires dynamic and constant content creation processes.

How to Personalize Content

1. Consider your goals.
2. Collect relevant data.
3. Analyze data.
4. Identify an ideal target audience.
5. Choose the most relevant channel or format for that segmented audience.
6. Create content that resonates with your audience.
7. Work on your strategy, monitor and evaluate then tweak it to improve personalization of content.

When choosing your channel(s) consider your target audience, available budget, your capacity, campaign goals and the type of service or product you are advertising. Digital advertising agent SocialQ provides expertise in this process and ensures that content personalization is delivered via your target audience’s preferred channel(s).

Should You Use AI-Generated Content?

Using AI in content development can streamline processes and enable an easier incorporation of data into digital marketing strategies. A fully managed machine learning service can generate audience-specific recommendations and automate interactive processes. This elevates a user’s experience by personalizing each touchpoint via the integration of relevant recommendations across an omnichannel approach. For online retail, this can result in improved item discovery which converts to higher sales. Using AI during a content creation process can also speed things up.

However, AI is not without its pitfalls. For example, AI-based content is often thin on specific brand details and does not account for user experience. This can result in content that’s not highly relevant or helpful to your target audience. While it’s not banned by Google, AI-generated content is not regarded by Google as high-quality content. The result is that AI content performance isn’t competitive and doesn’t perform well over time. Furthermore, AI content is more likely than human-generated content to be regarded as spam under Google’s policies. As a result, many companies outsource this area of their content personalization strategy to an expert marketing agency, like SocialQ. Contact Us today to tap into our expertise and begin a partnership that generates outcomes!