Personalisation dramatically increases consumer engagement and can drive a 10-15% increase in revenue.

Whenever I receive a personalised piece of marketing, it honestly makes me smile. I recently received one on the run-up to a bank holiday saying, “Ready for Bank Hol antics, Sophie?” I genuinely wanted to reply, “Hell, Yes!”

It excited me, it tapped into my love (and others’) of bank holiday weekends and used it as a marketing opportunity - genius! Now, of course, this wasn’t just an email to get me excited about the bank holiday. This was an email enticing me to spend the bank holiday at the pub with amazing drink offers and an exclusive drinks menu, but they got me just from having my name in the subject line.

When brands use personalisation in their marketing, they tap into a powerful aspect of human behaviour: the desire for recognition and connection. According to social identity theory, individuals have a need to identify with groups and feel a sense of belonging. By personalising marketing messages, brands create a sense of inclusion and recognition, increasing the chances of customer engagement and conversion.

In today’s age, everyone is being targeted with basic personalisation everywhere. As a result, we decide in seconds whether we like a marketing message or not. So, how can you leverage genuine personalisation to stand out from the crowd and create those all-important human connections?

Tip 1: Leveraging Genuine Personalisation

71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalised interactions, and 76% get frustrated when it doesn’t happen. While 88% feel that the experience a brand provides is just as important as its products.

With this in mind, your marketing strategy must have a personalisation focus as you look to grow conversion rates and average order values.

A good place to start is subject lines. The findings from this can then be used to leverage personalisation in other areas of your marketing from recommended products to highly targeted paid media ads. All while ensuring you are following a test-and-learn approach that measures ROI performance.

Not only will personalisation help your eCommerce business to stand out, but it also improves customer engagement, loyalty and deepens brand trust. When a brand directly addresses us, a need is being met, and we feel appreciated. A good personalisation strategy should help to reduce customer acquisition costs, increase revenue and increase the ROI of your overall marketing spend.

Tip 2: Understanding Customer Behaviour

We believe human insights should underpin all areas of your marketing, personalisation is no different. In fact, human insight is a critical component of getting personalisation right and achieving genuine personalisation.

Understanding the intent behind purchases and what factors drive and motivate consumers to buy from your brand can be exceptionally beneficial to your overall marketing approach. All of this can be understood by conducting a thorough behavioural analysis of your target market and a customer journey mapping exercise.

Immediately, your eCommerce business will have access to information such as:

Who is a frequent customer
Who is a lapsed customer
Who predominantly buy for their partner rather than themself
Who always adds a last-minute purchase to the cart
Mothers who exclusively buy for their children
Who only buys gifts for others
Who only shops when there's a sale on
How often does someone purchases
The frequency/use of discount codes

By understanding these different drivers you can target your customers with highly personalised messages that are hyper-relevant, increasing the chances of them engaging with your marketing and taking action as a result.

The hardest part is taking the data and knowledge that you have gained and using it to segment your customers and test those segments with targeted messaging. You will then need to continue to test, test, test until you hit that sweet spot.

Tip 3: Harnessing Psychological Nudges

There are many great personalisation solutions out there for eCommerce from the likes of Nosto, an AI-powered solution to Fresh Relevance which blends marketing creativity with smart tech to optimise revenue.

Personalisation solutions, such as Nosto and Fresh Relevance, leverage principles from cognitive psychology, specifically the concept of cognitive biases. These biases, such as the scarcity effect or the framing effect, influence how individuals perceive and make decisions.

The scarcity effect is a cognitive bias that suggests people place a higher value on items or opportunities that are perceived to be scarce or limited in availability. When individuals believe that something is rare or in short supply, they tend to perceive it as more desirable and valuable.

Take a look at this example below:

By incorporating these biases into personalised marketing campaigns, brands can influence customer behaviour, drive conversions, and increase average order values.

But, it’s not enough to learn about a few behavioural biases and simply apply them to your campaigns and doing so has the potential for some serious backfire effects. At Reflect Digital, to ensure that we are working with the correct psychological biases and harnessing the true power of nudges, we believe that thoroughly understanding your audience is the key to unlocking your brand's digital potential.

Summary

To create a seamless, personalised customer experience it’s essential for eCommerce brands to build captivating campaigns, driven by human insights. By harnessing the power of behavioural marketing you can deliver genuine personalisation across channels, that are tested and reviewed for optimal performance.

In the ever-challenging landscape of online retail, investing time and effort into proper personalisation, understanding what drives your customers' behaviours, and crafting intentional customer journey experiences, from your SEO strategy to your conversion landing pages, can make a remarkable difference. It's how brands uplift their conversion rates and foster loyal and engaging shopping communities. So, take the leap and embrace the potential of personalisation to forge stronger connections with your customers. The rewards will be worth it.

And remember 76% of consumers are frustrated when a brand doesn’t include personalisation so get started now! Ready to level up your marketing approach?

MEET THE
AUTHOR.

SOPHIE CLARKE

Sophie aims to bring value to every client she works with. To help develop marketing strategies that amplify the client's brand. To build relationships with the clients so that they feel that they can trust the agency to deliver excellent work so that they can succeed in their industry.

More about Sophie