Customisable Campaigns: How To Engage Your Audience Using Hyper-Personalised Marketing

Hyper-personalised marketing takes place when a business customises its marketing content and messages to match the needs and preferences of a specific person or group. A brand may use real-time data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to create these customisable campaigns.
 

A few years ago, businesses could get away with simple personalisation, such as using a customer’s first name in emails or re-targeting ads to remind them of the product they almost purchased.

‍

However, general personalisation, which uses historical customer data, is no longer enough, and businesses who want to succeed must create hyper-personalised marketing content using more advanced and complex customer data, including:

• Browsing activity, including what a consumer searches for and what websites they visit. This allows a business to recognise if someone is looking for a product or service they may offer.  
• Purchasing behaviour, including what consumers are buying and at what time of day. If a consumer is more likely to make online purchases after 9pm, the business can tailor when to send marketing messages.
• Affinity to discounts and free samples. This allows a business to recognise if a consumer is more likely to purchase when offered a discount or deal.
• Reactions to notifications. This allows businesses to recognise if sending notifications to someone during the day, whilst they may be at work, is pointless or results in engagement. It will also enable businesses to understand if customers like or dislike notifications.

For example, if a consumer spent 15 minutes browsing your website or mobile app for summer dresses on a Wednesday afternoon but left without purchasing, you could send them a hyper-personalised email or app notification on a Wednesday afternoon, advertising an upcoming sale on summer dresses.

Examples of Hyper-Personalised Marketing
 

Here are some types of hyper-personalised marketing:

• Product recommendations. Using a customer’s search or purchase history, brands can provide recommendations similar to what the customer is interested in. This makes it easier for customers to find what they want and make purchase decisions.
• Emails. Emails can get a former customer back onto a brand’s site by letting them know about a relevant sale or re-engage a customer who may have left the site with items still in their basket.
• Social media posts. Social media posts can include particular ads to target specific segments of an audience or re-target customers who may have previously visited a brand’s site. 
• Call-to-action (CTA). Brands can personalise their CTAs depending on the customer and where they’ve come from. This allows a brand to offer particular features to the customers who are most likely to engage with them.
• Hero images. Brands can adjust the main header by adding a photo that features items relevant to the customer or their geographic location.
• Blog posts. Brands can recommend blog posts that visitors will likely click on by using customer data to understand their interests.
• Games. Interactive games and quizzes keep audiences immersed in content and can be used to collect data. 
• Apps. Customers who download a brand’s app are likely repeat customers and are solidifying their loyalty, so creating a personalised experience will further strengthen a brand’s relationship with loyal customers.

Here are some top brands that have used hyper-personalised marketing: 

Starbucks 

The Starbucks app tracks a customer’s frequency of purchases, product preferences and trends. The app then displays hyper-personalised deals, product updates tailored to each individual’s interests, and where the closest Starbucks store is located. Starbucks has built a solid brand-audience relationship, and hyper-personalised content is the major contributor.

Secret Escapes

British travel company Secret Escapes adapts a customer’s landing page based on the keyword they have searched for on Google and the paid advert they clicked on after their search. The headlines, sub-heads and imagery are updated to reflect the customer’s needs.

‍

The travel company saw a 32% increase in conversions in new user signups from visitors who received this hyper-personalised landing page.

Spotify 
 

Spotify presents listeners with hyper-personalised music choices based on a cross-analysis of the preferences of others who listened to the same songs. Consumers can access a range of hyper-personalised playlists in their home page’s ‘Made For’ and ‘Discover Picks’ sections. Spotify also has a Live Concert feature, which emails consumers about live events based on their favourite artists and who they listen to most. These are hyper-personalised, as you will not receive an email about the Taylor Swift Eras Tour if you have never listened to her on your Spotify account.
 

Amazon

Amazon tracks a user’s name, search query, average time spent searching, past purchase history, average spend amount, and brand affinity. This data creates a hyper-personalised selection of products they’re most likely to buy, so every time a customer opens their Amazon homepage, it feels like it’s been designed just for them. 

‍

Amazon also connects purchase history with browsing data. So if a user buys stationery and watches many Disney films, they may suggest Dumbo or Bambi-themed stationery in the future. In addition, Amazon also uses a hyper-personalised email marketing strategy so that if you stop searching for a product, you’re likely to receive an email shortly afterwards with relevant product recommendations.

Thread 

Thread gives consumers a free personal stylist who sends weekly emails containing product recommendations based on their preferred styles, body type, budget and feedback on previous pieces. The UK-based online retailer makes this possible by combining expert stylists with cutting-edge AI and a machine learning algorithm called ‘Thimble’. 

Ikea 

Customers can use the Ikea Place app, which is powered by augmented reality (AR), to scan a room of their home and then browse the Ikea catalogue to see how products would look in their space. In doing this, Ikea collects vast amounts of data to improve its hyper-personalised product recommendations.

Netflix 

More than 80% of what you watch on Netflix comes from personalised recommendations, as keeping people engaged is the streaming service’s number one priority. 

The personalised recommendations system draws from many sources, including customer ratings, which feed into an algorithm to determine what content is shown to whom. 

MandM Direct 

MandM Direct shaped its homepage to show each customer fewer items but all that meet their colour, size and budget preferences based on products previously put into a customer’s online basket.

Since implementing AI-powered deep learning product recommendations in 2021, MandM Direct has seen a 2.4% increase in overall revenue and an 11.4% jump in product recommendation click-through rates. 

Six Ways To Engage Your Audience With Hyper-Personalised Content

70% of emotionally engaged consumers spend two times or more on the brands they are loyal to. In addition, engaged customers are also likely to recommend the brand to others. 

Therefore, it’s beneficial for businesses to focus on creating hyper-personalised content that gives customers an engaging experience. Here’s how:

Send notifications

63% of consumers believe they are recognised as individuals when sent personalised offers.

Brands can send push notifications to prompt customers to open their app in return for a discount or offer. This results in the customer taking action and engaging with the app.

Brands that send push notifications that aren’t too frequent, irrelevant or spammy can also leave themselves in the front of a customer’s mind. 

Predict what consumers want

91% of consumers said they would be more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations.

By understanding complex customer data and information from external sources, businesses can engage with consumers by predicting what they want before they have a chance to look at a competitor.

2. Using hyper-personalisation across all channels

51% of consumers feel it is important to get a personalised experience across all digital channels within a brand.

Maintain a consistent hyper-personalised customer experience across all channels, including website, email, social media, and advertising. This approach will drive higher engagement and return on investment (ROI).

4. Understand and segment consumers 

Before you hyper-personalise content, you must divide your audience into segments to create highly targeted customer profiles. This enables you to deliver the most relevant content and experiences to each segment, maximising the chances of engagement.

Here are seven customer segmentation examples: 

• Demographic: Age, gender, religion, ethnicity, job industry or title, and income.
• Psychographic: Interests, lifestyle, values, motivations, and personality traits.
• Geographic: Country, city, climate, urban or rural, and proximity to a location.
• Behavioural: Purchasing habits, social media engagement, email engagement, and use of a business website.
• Customer stage: Awareness, decision-making, purchase, and post-purchase.
• Technology: Device, app or browser usage, most used social media platform, and logged in or checked out as a guest.
• Benefit: Benefits a consumer seeks from a brand, product, or service. 

5. Provide value

Understanding what an individual wants from their online experience is crucial when aiming to offer value they appreciate and keep them engaged. You can understand your customer by:

• Speaking to them and others. Customer focus groups, surveys, reviews, ratings, support tickets, and social media comments can help a brand learn what its audience needs by gathering feedback on content and campaigns.
• Gathering insights from marketing and customer service teams. Learn from those who have direct contact with customers.
• Studying analytics. Study your brand’s engagement metrics to understand which content users interact with most, which content doesn’t get attention, which channels are used during different stages of the buyer’s journey, and more. 

6. Pick the right time or channel

With the complex customer data you have gathered, determine the right or preferred channel, device, time of day and type of communication for your consumers. Then, engage them with hyper-personalised content when and where they will most likely see it.
 

Conclusion 

Hyper-personalisation is an indispensable component of content marketing since customers are increasingly expecting tailored experiences and highly curated offers. Businesses that want to be successful in today’s digital world should use real-time data, AI and machine learning to create meaningful connections with customers through hyper-personalised marketing.