Relevance is the Key to Personalised Marketing Success

As the digital market has become increasingly competitive it is now time for retailers to offer customers a highly personalised service in order to stand out from the crowd.

Personalisation is customer service at its best, recognising and giving the customer exactly what they need. Now with great advances in technology, it has become easier to personalise the shopping experience for online shoppers.

1. Lack of Personalisation Online

Although the importance of providing a personalised service is widely acknowledged, many online stores have not adopted a personalised online shopping experience. A recent survey carried out by Deloitte, found that up to 36 percent of online shoppers crave a personalised approach to shopping. Therefore, those companies who do not use a personalised approach are missing out on the action and potential sales.

2. The Key to Personalised Marketing Success Is Relevance

Welcome personalised messages and allowing customers to browse products that are suitable and recommended for them are fantastic ways to impenetrable a relevant personalised shopping experience. The customer is at the heart of the shopping experience and should be made to feel important and involved in the shopping process.

Online shopping needs to be relevant for every single customer. It needs to tap into individual needs and understand every individual’s preferences. But how can this be achieved? Retailers need to firstly gain personal information from customers by asking direct questions and then secondly by assessing and gathering information about their online shopping behaviour.

3. Try Before You Implement a Relevant Personalised Marketing Service 

Before implementing relevant personalisation, it is important that you test your customer base. The best way to do so is via the customer welcome page. Common ways would be to simply ask the customer if they like the brand shown on the welcome page or ask if they would like to receive news and offers in return for their email address and shopping preferences. From this information the customer can then receive personalised recommendations. It is important to listen to your customers and utilise their feedback to customise content. Data collection is also important, including both qualitative and quantities statistics. This information can then be used to create a relevant and evidence led shopping experience.

4. Relevance of Product Listings

The way in which products are shown on a company website also need to be relevant to each individual shopper. So for example, when searching for an item, the information previously gained about the customer’s past shopping experiences and lifestyle choices should enable that customer to see their preferred brands at the top of the list.

5. The Long Term Relationship

The longevity of personalisation is very much based upon a long term relationship with each individual customer. It is about consistency and offering the customer what they want. Being consistent and adding that personal touch will keep customers happy and loyal.

Tim Aldiss writes for Cloud-iQ the conversion optimisation experts.