The Truth About Personalised Marketing
At Precision Proco, we specialise in taking personalisation to the next level, blending data-driven insights with print and digital solutions that truly connect with your audience. There's a misconception that personalised marketing ends with including a customer's name. But we know a simple "Dear Helen" merely scratches the surface of what's possible.
Used to it's full potential, personalisation deep dives into data to deliver highly relevant, contextual marketing that speaks to buyers' unique behaviours and preferences.
Customers today not only expect this level of customisation from brands, but they actively value it. It's what makes them feel seen and heard and makes marketing messages stand out in a sea of oversaturated platforms and constant advertising noise.
So, in this post, we'll look at what personalised marketing really means, why it's so powerful, and how it boosts engagement, conversions and customer loyalty.
why personalisation matters
More than ever, customers crave relevance. A recent study on personalisation found that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalised interactions. And 76% get frustrated when this doesn't happen.
This shift toward personalisation means that brands must now go beyond generic messages and deliver real-time, data-powered experiences that make customers feel understood and valued.
Through advancements in machine learning and other data-driven technologies, marketers can now accurately pinpoint customer behaviour and predict what their audience might want even before they know it themselves!
Take homemovers, for example. By pinpointing what goods appeal to this audience at specific times on their home-moving journeys, brands can target them with hyper-relevant marcomms when they're most susceptible. Be it DIY products pre-move to spruce up their existing abode or new furniture and electrical items post-move to enhance their new pad.
Clever, hey?
And that's just the tip of the personalisation iceberg, with everything from key life events and demographics to purchasing patterns providing golden prompts for data-driven touchpoints that resonate and convert.
going beyond the basics: how to implement personalised marketing
Achieving meaningful personalisation is about creating a genuinely tailored experience for each customer, understanding their entire journey, and meeting them with the right message on the right channel at the right time.
Here's how to go beyond the basics to make personalisation truly effective:
1. Data-driven insights & customer segmentation
Effective personalisation starts with gathering and understanding customer data on a deep level. By leveraging analytics, brands can go beyond surface-level demographics to discover real behavioural insights, like past purchases, average spending, browsing patterns and engagement history. This data allows for segmentation that is meaningful, actionable, and rooted in genuine customer needs.
For example, life events such as moving house or having a baby provide opportunities to connect with customers when their purchasing habits shift. By creating segments that reflect these needs, brands can deliver messages that truly resonate, reaching customers with the products, services or content they need at precisely the right moment. Instead of casting the net wide, data-driven segmentation helps brands target precisely and remain relevant.
2. recognising & responding to triggers
Recognising "triggers"- those customer actions or moments that prompt a response- is essential to crafting timely and impactful interactions. Triggers range from commercial actions like abandoning a shopping basket, repeatedly viewing a product without purchasing or making a first purchase to life events, like a birthday. Each presents a glowing opportunity to respond in a way that feels natural and responsive to the customer's current interests.
Automated systems help brands identify and respond to these triggers, offering customers helpful nudges based on recent interactions. For instance, an abandoned basket email reminder or mini print brochure inspired by previously viewed items can encourage a sale without feeling pushy. These responses make marketing feel less like a "cold call" and more like a thoughtful reminder, maintaining customer engagement and increasing the chances of conversion.
3. omni-channel effectiveness & consistency
True personalisation requires a seamless experience across all channels, whether online, in print or in-store. Customers want brands to remember their preferences, and consistent cross-channel messaging helps meet this expectation while building deeper, more authentic connections.
A loyalty app, for example, can offer insights into a customer's purchase history that can enhance their in-store experience with a personal shopper. Likewise, by using data from online wishlists or viewed items, you can offer exclusive deals across email and print communications that you know will appeal, increasing the chance of conversion.
4. contextual targeting that's clever, not creepy
Personalised marketing is about making customers feel seen, not watched. To strike that balance, it's essential to ensure that real-time contextual targeting feels helpful and intuitive rather than invasive. Consumers today are more privacy-conscious than ever, and when done poorly, personalisation can quickly turn from clever to creepy.
Using data with discretion and focusing on relevancy over intensity helps hit the sweet spot. For example, sending a timely back-in-stock alert or notifying a customer about a special offer or exclusive event based on their purchase history shows attentiveness without being overbearing. It's all about building trust by using data to add value and create a sense of belonging- not to freak your audience out.
Ultimately, personalisation should convey a sense of thoughtfulness, showing customers that you're not only aware of their preferences but also respect their boundaries. Through timely targeting, which is helpful, brands can create a personalised experience that makes customers feel valued and enhances their journey with the brand.
The benefits of personalised marketing for brands
In a notable study of 1,000 consumers aged between 18-64, a whopping 80% of respondents of respondents indicated they're more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalised experiences, while 90% indicated that they find personalisation appealing.
Stats not to be argued with, right?
And higher conversions aren't the only benefits you can expect to bag by taking a more "in-tune" approach to your marcomms:
- Increased Loyalty & retention: Customers are more likely to stay loyal to brands that make them feel valued and understood. This, in turn, boosts customer lifetime value.
- Maximised ROI: Personalisation helps reduce wasted ad spend by ensuring messages are relevant and timely, meaning the marketing budget works harder to drive real results.
Top tips for personalisation success
To get the most out of your personalisation efforts, keep these marketing best practices in mind:
- Quality Over Quantity: Focus on gathering high-quality, actionable data rather than amassing large amounts of information. Understanding a few critical behaviours or interests is more valuable than having superficial data that doesn't inform your strategy.
- Continuous Testing & Learning: Personalisation requires constant refinement. Test various approaches to see what resonates best with different segments and continually adjust campaigns based on results.
- Balance Empathy with Effectiveness: A personalised message should feel like a thoughtful gesture, not a robotic response. Use empathy to connect with customers, understanding their social cues, moods, pain points, and needs.
- Think Outside the Box: Tailoring your marcomms shouldn't mean being less creative in the design department. Your message needs to stand out to attract attention. Direct mail solutions can be a particularly effective channel to let your design imagination run wild with the opportunity to engage multiple senses and embrace endless finishes and formats.
time to get personal
Personalised marketing is both an art and a science, requiring data analysis, creativity, and a genuine desire to connect with your audience.
Moving beyond simple name drops, it delivers dynamic, relevant, cross-channel content that drives sales and helps create long-term brand fans.
So, the truth about personalised marketing? It's all about making your customers feel seen, heard, and understood on a deeper level so they connect, convert and stick around!
Ready to tap into the future of personalised data-driven marketing? We can help you deliver the right message to the right people at the right time... and the best bit? We'll get geeky with the data, so you don't have to! Simply contact us at 0114 272 8888 or hello@precisionproco.co.uk to find out more.