How to drive sales with customer-unique content

Exhibit one: open your email. It is likely that you have a couple of promotional mailers and newsletters. It is also likely that they will stay unopened unless they have a catchy heading or tote a hefty discount. The one thing they are probably not, is personal.

In fact, you receive the exact same content as everyone else and like many consumers, we feel it’s boring. When everything looks and feels the same, brands begin to question what businesses can do to stimulate hype, excitement, and safeguard sales. The answer begins with customer-unique content.

Here are five ways to generate personalised content to support your brand’s marketing and sales drive in 2021 and beyond:

1. Break the noise barrier

Fact: 81% of consumers want brands to get to know them better. Added to that, 87% say that personalised content impacts their perception of a brand. To move away from generic marketing messages and mailers, we need to understand our audiences better. The best way is to provide customers with a tailored experience.

Investing in personalisation may seem like an expensive and overwhelming task, but technology has made it more attainable. We have come a long way - consumer behaviour is constantly changing and that means brands and businesses must adapt new technologies to meet modern forms of consumption. Users no longer want something to simply be sold to them - to break through the noise, forward thinking businesses are showing the buyer what they need.

2. Personalisation is humanisation

One of the best ways to humanise the digital customer journey is through personalisation. While innovative technology like augmented or virtual reality can spark interest, it is the emotional connection which keeps us coming back. Consumers want to spend their hard-earned money with companies that understand them. By knowing our audience, knowing what questions they ask, and what stage of the buyer journey they are at, businesses can identify individual needs, and effectively ‘humanise’ the customer experience.

3. Build better loyalty

A global survey revealed that 65% of business buyers are likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t make an effort to personalise communications. To generate real sentiment, brands need to stand out from the crowd. Today’s digital consumers are not going to be impressed with generic marketing. They are used to receiving marketing on mass and can easily tell when something is simply ‘sales’ orientated.

Real brand loyalty relies on emotion. It is the experience we provide our customers by differentiating their experience across digital, and then they’ll keep coming back!

4. Smart data

According to a Forbes study, companies that adopt data-driven marketing are more likely to have an advantage over the competition and increase profitability. In fact, they are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year. A good marketing strategy should include using customer data to deliver smarter communication based on interests and behaviour.

One of the most effective ways to improve the customer experience is by personalising content and as a result, data collected for personalisation facilitates humanisation. Delve deeper to make your data work: the right data sets allow brands to define a customer space, one they can really own.

5. The right time, the right place

Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to e-commerce everywhere. As we head into 2021, decision-makers are overwhelmed with communications from businesses and brands in a battle to win sales. And this year, as we know, will be challenging with more people online than ever before.

To keep up, clever businesses are creating more secure payment systems, expanding distribution to speed delivery, and expanding their customer service and correspondence across different platforms.

Secluded in our homes, the digital space is our link with the outside world. Brands are pivoting their digital personalisation strategies to serve relevant content to customers in a new reality. Personalised content marketing is one of the best ways to stand out from the competition. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work anymore, and customers quickly know if they are ‘just another name on a list’.

In a time of uncertainty, businesses should focus on what works and double-down on nurturing and building relationships with their existing customers. Creating content that maps the user journey and moves the needle at scale should be a key part of the marketing strategy as we head into 2021, and beyond.