“Top picks for you!” 
“Amazon recommends” 
“Craving your favourite, Richard”? 

Email inboxes are being filled daily by various brands and retailers who are looking for different ways to target their consumers with new and innovative content. It’s very easy to ignore emails and other forms of communication when you feel like it gets too much; and many consumers do. In fact, we’ve seen a rise in the amount of marketing emails since the beginning of Covid and consumers have been forced to  conduct most of their shopping activity online. 

The main aim of personalisation is to interact with your audience in a human-like way. This is done by taking into account their interests, buying habits and preferences. Once this information is registered, it is easier to target them with specific content tailored to their preferences. 

The form of personalisation has moved on from simply placing the recipients name in the subject line and beginning of the email; content is being generated specifically for the consumer. 

The current state of personalisation concludes the following findings: 
 

• 71% of consumers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal. – Segment
• 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalised. – Instapage
• 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them. – Accenture
• 79% of retailers are investing in personalization, the most of any industry. – SmarterHQ
• 70% of consumers say that a company understanding how they use products and services is very important to winning their business. – Salesforce

Retailers investing heavily in personalisation is no surprise. In order to retain consumers, the customer must feel like they are being as one. Knowing what customers are interested in, what they purchase often and how much they spend is key to finding content tailored for them. This is where Amazon executes personalisation very well. Emails are sent to recipients based on not only their purchase history but the type of items they view. 

Streaming services will often recommend content based on your preferred genre. There are filters available to select your preferred choice of programme. Suggestions are then made to you based on your preferences. As a result retailers and services are also acquiring clicks via email – another channel. 

The customer experience is one of the key drivers to whether consumers return or not. Social Media marketing is another channel where content can be tailored to your audience. Identifying audience engagement determines which type of content they’re likely to interact with. Insights such as age, location and interests can help decide how to target consumers. It may be a case of producing a different piece of content for each platform, rather than posting the same message across each platform. 

The next step once conquering personalisation via communication channels, is to incorporate in into their products and services. Coke’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign was considered a major success in 2011; where a popular name would be displayed on Coke bottles next to “share a Coke with…”
and the aim was to create a personal relationship with customers and inspired moments of happiness. 

Once audience habits are understood, that’s where the magic of personalisation is at it’s most effective. 

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