Few brands, like Google, have become commonplace words in our everyday language. Slack is one of the other few that has been awarded this honor. While one teammate googles tips to figure out a snag, another slacks with a heads up that the solution is in pursuit.
For many, Slack has overtaken email as the dominant means of communication. And just like some wrestle with unmanageable email inboxes, many others are trying to tame their Slack.
So here are 12 handy tips for making the best of Slack and leveraging it to enhance what you do across the rest of your suite of programs.
1. Set Reminders For Important Tasks In Channels Or Direct Messages
You have probably used or heard of Slack reminders. Either to remind someone while you are always on vacation or simply so you don’t forget to do that optimization, schedule a reminder to stay on top of important tasks.
Use the slash command to set up reminders in channels or direct messages.
Screenshot from Slack app, January 2023
Editor’s note: There are three types of slash commands: the ones built by Slack, the ones built by third-party apps, and the custom ones by your organization. You can learn more about how to use slash commands for Slack in this article.
2. Create Keyword Notifications To Specific Updates
Feeling overwhelmed by all the notifications from the myriad of channels that are important but are too time-consuming to follow? You can mute the channels while setting up keyword notifications, so you are alerted only when specific terms come up.
Open the Notifications section under your Slack preferences and select the “My Keywords” section to set up your list. As new projects come up and others are completed, refine your keyword list to stay tuned only to the most pertinent updates.
Screenshot from Slack app, January 2023
3. Schedule A Meeting Without Leaving Slack
Having to jump between programs or apps is perhaps the biggest source of wasted time. Scheduling meetings is arguably one of the most common daily tasks. Good news: you can do that without leaving Slack and start having less frenetic days.
First, you must download the Google Slack Calendar or the Outlook Slack Calendar app. Then, when chatting with a contact, click on the lightning icon for a menu with the option to schedule the meeting.
Screenshot from Slack app, January 2023
4. Keep Key People And Channels At The Top
To avoid scrolling and searching for key contacts, use the star feature to lock a person or channel so that they always appear at the top. A starred category will then appear in your left navigation panel, to help prioritize the contacts or channels which you never want to miss.
Screenshot from Slack app, January 2023
5. Integrate Your Emails With Slack
It is often easier to discuss something as a group via slack than over email, especially if numerous recipients are involved. Slack can help here by leveraging Slack’s capability to receive incoming emails.
Set up an email address that Slack can use as a recipient. Then, either automatically or manually forward mail to this address. Then, you (or Slack channel recipients if you are using a channel) will receive the email within the channel and could all chime in more easily.
6. Sort Slack Channels Into Sections For Quick Browsing
Another organizational hack is to combine channels into groups. Some common grouping approaches are to organize channels by team, project topic, or deliverable timeframe.
As sections are editable, you can shift channels from one grouping to another like you would emails from one folder to another.
With channels grouped into sections, you can then minimize all but the most important section focusing your attention on the conversations that matter most.
7. Send Messages Directly From Any Text Box With /msg
Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to search for a contact to message them? That is actually possible. Send a message to anyone from any text box with the /msg command.
Screenshot from Slack app by Editorial, January 2023
8. Leverage Workflow Builder To Streamline Frequent Requests
If you find yourself often getting asked the same set of questions, use Slack’s workflow builder to create intake forms.
This will not only save you time by receiving all the information you need in one go but also help the inquiring party understand what you need to help them. No more back and forth to collect disjointed pieces of information. Get it all in one go and repeat that for anyone else who inquires.
9. Use Slack With Your Manage Project Management Tools
While all project management tools are well intended, they come with the challenge of needing to manage them on top of managing the project they are supposed to streamline. At times, it can seem that managing the project management tool is as much work as the project itself.
Slack can also alleviate the need for working on two separate platforms by allowing notifications from project management tools.
Most of them – like Asana, Trello, or Monday.com – have integrations with Slack supporting duplicate notifications whereby alerts go to Slack on top of showing up within the project management provider’s own interface.
10. Get Updates Via A RSS Feed Link
On rare occasions, you might actually want more Slack updates. When a vendor launches a new service, a client makes a key announcement or around big events like the Super Bowl or elections. You may find yourself needing all the updates you can possibly gather.
An RSS feed is a big help in these cases. What’s even better is an RSS feed that’s connected directly to your Slack, where you can seamlessly forward them to colleagues or save them for reference. Not all RSS feeds may work with Slack, but they can point to the ones that do.
Conclusion
Approach 2023 and your next Slack encounter with optimism. Never forget to water your plant, miss your client’s earnings call, and scale back notifications to those that really matter with top-of-mind keywords.
Online reviews are an unavoidable part of doing business in today’s digital age.
Every marketer worth their salt knows that online reputation is everything.
Whether you own or manage a small mom-and-pop restaurant, a computer software company, or a chain of coffee shops, your customers are likely to look for you online.
That means one of the first things they’ll do is look for online reviews about your business.
Of course, positive reviews help you to create a trusted brand, which people are more likely to purchase from. However, how you respond to negative reviews also says much about your business.
Why Online Reviews Are So Powerful
Yelp, Google Business Profile, TripAdvisor, and similar are a boon for consumers, giving them a platform to learn about businesses before patronizing them.
For business owners? Not so much.
It seems that no matter how hard you try, you’re bound to get that one bad review that could potentially overshadow all your glowing reviews.
Online reviews, however, are an unavoidable part of doing business online.
For millennials, reviews are empowering, helping them make an informed and thought-out purchase decision (useful when deciding if a restaurant’s $15 avocado toast is worth it).
If you still aren’t completely on board, here are online review statistics that may change your mind.
According to a 2021 report by PowerReviews, over 99.9% of customers read reviews when they shop online.
Furthermore, 96% of customers look for negative reviews specifically. This figure was 85% back in 2018.
When people look for bad reviews, they’re interested in knowing some of the company’s weaknesses. Where could they improve? If the downfalls are minor, it makes the researcher feel assured.
A near-perfect rating is often viewed as less credible and leads to consumer skepticism if reviews are too positive.
2. Consumers Trust Reviews Like Recommendations From Loved Ones
BrightLocal’s local consumer survey shows that 49% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family members.
Screenshot from BrightLocal, January 2023
When you consider just how much we trust the people we love, it’s compelling to think that every 1 in 2 people trust online reviews as much.
However, the research reveals that some occasions cause consumers to suspect a review’s validity. So, you do need to be mindful of this.
Situations that can raise suspicion that a review may be fake include:
The review is overboard in its praise (45%)
The review is one of many reviews with similar content (40%)
The reviewer uses a common pseudonym or is anonymous (38%)
The review is overboard in negativity (36%)
The review is one of only a few positive amongst many negative reviews (32%)
The review contains hardly any text and is just a star rating (31%)
3. The More Reviews, The Better Reputation
Screenshot from BrightLocal, January 2023
BrightLocal’s research also found that 60% of consumers feel that the number of reviews a business has is critical when reviewing and deciding whether to use its services.
Although this has dropped since 2020, it’s still a high figure, especially compared to 2019, 2018, and 2017.
4. Most Consumers Don’t Trust Advertising
While online reviews are seeing a rise in consumer trust, the same can’t be said for traditional advertising.
According to Performance Marketing World, 84% of millennials don’t trust conventional advertising.
If anything, this finding is a sign of the times. People are tired of ads being pushed on their faces, especially ads that belie the truth of the quality of the products and services they get from brands.
5. Shoppers Research Product Reviews On Their Phones – Outside Of Your Store
OuterBox recently revealed that every 8 in 10 shoppers use their smartphones to look up product reviews while they are in-store.
Before buying an item, shoppers will quickly search to see what other people have had to say about the product in question.
Some will compare prices, determining whether they can find the item elsewhere cheaper.
This statistic shows how the online and offline worlds are becoming increasingly integrated. If you don’t have a good online review presence, it can have a negative impact on the number of sales you make in-store.
6. Reviews Shared On Twitter Increase Social Commerce
Yotpo has revealed that reviews on social media platforms increase social commerce, especially on Twitter. You can see this displayed in the chart below:
Screenshot from Yotpo.com, January 2023
When we think of social media, we associate it with building brand awareness. However, it’s also effective for driving sales.
Yotpo Data found that when reviews are shared on social platforms, the conversion rate is 5.3 times higher for LinkedIn, 8.4 times higher for Twitter, and 40 times higher for Facebook.
All these statistics show us that reviews are an incredibly powerful form of social proof that results in higher conversion levels across LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Furthermore, a lot of the eCommerce world is underestimating Twitter’s force.
7. Reviews Are Just As Important Among Jobseekers
If you thought consumers were the only ones concerned about reviews, think again.
Research published by Glassdoor indicates that 86% of employees and job seekers research reviews on a business and ratings to determine whether they should apply for a job.
Screenshot from Glassdoor.com, January 2023
As competition for talent in certain industries gets tougher, companies will have no choice but to be more conscious about their employer brand if they wish to attract top talent.
8. 3.3 Stars Is The Minimum Rating Customers Accept
When deciding whether to engage with a business, it has been indicated that 3.3 stars out of 5 are the lowest rating customers are likely to consider.
If you have a lower rating than this, your business may be overlooked and lose valuable consumers to the competition.
It probably does not come as a shock to discover that only 13% of consumers will contemplate using a company with a rating of 2 stars or less.
9. Sustainability Is A Recurring Theme In Travel Reviews
11. Tiny Subject Line Changes Can Get More Reviews
When soliciting reviews, most businesses send an email post-purchase.
Yotpo studied the subject lines of 3.5 million of these post-purchase review request emails to discover what works and what doesn’t when asking customers for reviews.
While this is much more than a single statistic, here is a synopsis of the top subject line tweaks to get more reviews:
An emotional appeal doesn’t greatly impact the review response rates.
Include your store name to increase reviews.
Incentives inspire more reviews in every industry.
Ask a question in the subject line.
Exclamation points boost reviews for food and tobacco businesses!
Avoid using a totally uppercase word in your subject lines.
12. Reputation Management Software Pays For Itself
Podium released a very interesting report on online reviews, stating that 94% of local companies who utilize a reputation management tool make up for the cost with the ROI.
How your company appears online massively dictates what shows up in terms of your bottom line.
Because of this, companies are investing more in their reputations than ever before.
One way they do this is by investing in reputation management software. This gives them the ability to have clarity regarding how their business is reviewed online.
13. Customers Believe A Product Should Have 100+ Reviews
Power Reviews recently posted interesting statistics about the number of reviews shoppers want.
In a perfect world, 43% of consumers have indicated that they want to see more than 100 reviews for an item.
Take a look at the table below to see consumer expectations regarding review volume:
Screenshot from PowerReviews.com, January 2023
Consumers indicate that a notably high volume of reviews can have a big, positive impact on their purchase likelihood.
Out of those surveyed, 64% indicated that they would be more likely to purchase an item if it had over 1,000 reviews than if it only had 100 reviews.
Furthermore, 54% are more likely to purchase an item if it has 10,000+ reviews compared to 1,000 reviews. So, more is always better when it comes to quantity.
14. Few Travelers Post Unsolicited Online Hotel Reviews
BrightLocal has also uncovered that 78% of travelers never post unsolicited online hotel reviews. This means you cannot simply rely on customers to post hotel reviews of their own free will. They need to be encouraged to do so.
Customers say that the main ways they have been asked to leave a review are as follows:
Via email (41%)
During the sale/in-person (35%)
When receiving an invoice or receipt (35%)
SMS text (27%)
You need to be mindful of how you approach customers when asking to leave a review. The last thing you want to do is come across as pushy. At the same time, you want to make customers feel compelled to post a comment.
Offering an incentive, such as a special discount or entry into a competition, is a good approach.
15. Consumers Are Becoming Increasingly Suspicious Of Facebook Reviews
While online consumers rely on reviews to make purchasing decisions, they’re also suspicious of fake reviews. In fact, 93% of Facebook account holders are suspicious of fake reviews on this social media platform.
Screenshot from Brightlocal, January 2023
As you can see from the table, only 7% of users don’t feel at all suspicious about Facebook reviews.
Users also have low trust in Google, Yelp, and Amazon reviews.
16. Most Consumers Use Rating Filters
Did you know that 7 in 10 consumers utilize rating filters when looking for companies?
Out of all the different rating options, the most popular is to narrow down a search based on the rating it is, for example, to only show hotels with ratings of four stars or above.
This helps customers only view products, locations, and services that fall within their standards. No one wants to waste their time on things that don’t fit!
17. Customers Expect You To Respond To Negative Reviews Within 7 Days
When customers post negative reviews about a business, they expect a response. Not only this, but they don’t want to wait around for it.
Review Trackers have stated that 53% of customers expect companies to respond to negative feedback within one week.
Therefore, you really need to ensure you’re keeping up with the reviews you receive and responding appropriately.
18. Your Response To A Review Can Change How Customers View Your Business
Podium’s 2021 State of Reviews publication revealed that 56% of consumers had changed their perspective on a business based on how they responded to a review.
We know that it can make you feel sick to your stomach when you receive a bad review from a customer. However, this statistic shows that there is the potential to turn this into a positive.
If you respond empathetically and try to understand the customer, they will feel like you really care about them and the service they receive. You can turn an unsatisfied customer into a loyal one.
And, even if the consumer who has complained does not reply, the fact you’ve tried to rectify their grievance will show your business in a positive light when others read the review.
The Bottom Line On The Impact of Online Reviews
These statistics reveal one unavoidable truth: online reviews are important and are here to stay.
Simply put, online reviews are directly linked to consumer trust and creating social proof.
Rather than fear them, you should look at them as a way to get a direct line to your customers.
If you are yet to begin your efforts to manage your online reputation, now’s as good a time as any to get started by doing the following:
Educate your customers on the importance of leaving reviews, but make sure to communicate that these reviews will help you improve your business, which can only be a good thing for them.
Take charge of your brand on all review platforms. Respond to feedback and make sure complaints are managed in a timely and orderly fashion.
Today’s consumers don’t just enjoy content personalization – they expect it.
Yet, far too often, we think adding to our email headlines is all it takes to personalize well.
In this article, we’ll look at why personalization matters, and how to get started implementing personalization across your customer journey.
Why Personalize?
Personalization is all about cutting down the noise and delivering exactly what your customer or client needs to hear.
It’s a way to make a deeper and more meaningful connection with the people you’re trying to reach.
From a business perspective, personalization has a huge return on investment (ROI).
Epsilon research found that when companies use personalization in their content, 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase.
And according to Google research, a highly personalized shopping experience makes customers 40% more likely to spend more than they had originally planned.
If you want to create high-performing content that delights and engages your customers, personalization is key.
Metadata Is The Key To Personalization
The backbone of any personalization strategy is data.
Metadata is simply information about your data. Why is this important?
Well, to personalize content, you need to connect your customers to the correct content, which means you need data about both customers and content.
Once you collect customer data, you can use this information to create custom content.
Tagging Content
The more information you have about our content, the easier it will be to direct it to the right audience.
One way to do this is by tagging your content with information like audience, persona, funnel stage, and campaign.
Email is a terrific area to begin incorporating some content personalization.
Adding first names to email subjects is a common place to start, but there’s so much more you can do.
Let’s look at some examples.
If a tech company sends out a marketing email to its entire email list promoting a sale, that’s pretty good.
But what would be better is sending out a promotional email to different groups based on their persona. This way you can personalize the content based on interest.
Instead of sending a generic “thank you” email after someone downloads a resource, send them an email suggesting more content related to what they downloaded.
We sent this email to prospective customers who may be interested in this white paper based on their persona.
Screenshot from author, November 2022
Website History
With some basic analytics, you can discover which website pages your potential clients are spending the most time on.
And if they submit an email address for a newsletter or download, you can follow along their exact journey on your website.
Using this data you can create personalized emails that specifically target the information they’re interacting with.
Now, this strategy isn’t scalable, and it would take way too much time to track every single prospect.
But for B2B businesses, it’s worth it to analyze your prospect journeys and make note of any potentially large and in-target customers.
A few well-placed emails to an already interested prospect can make a world of difference.
Location
If your business is international, you can create marketing emails that reflect the local seasons and holidays of your customers.
More important than trying to recognize each holiday on the planet is simply to recognize that your customers don’t all live in the same area.
I would suggest that not sending a “Welcome Summer” email to your Australian customers at the beginning of June is actually a form of personalization.
Instead, make sure any references to holidays, sports, and weather are relevant to the location where you’re sending the email.
This is a great way to show that you understand the global nature of your business.
Interest
Instead of offering all of your products or services to customers, help them discover content focused on what they’re already interested in.
This could be as simple as asking which topics they’d like to learn more about on an email sign-up form.
You can also use data about what your customers have already purchased, pages they’ve viewed, and videos they’ve watched to set up an interest-based workflow.
Here’s an example of a marketing email we sent out after a conference. Based on which link the recipient clicked, they were put into a workflow customized to their interests.
Screenshot from author, November 2022
Persona
Personalizing content based on persona is especially important for B2B organizations.
The messaging we use to communicate with C-suite professionals is different than how we present our message to technical writers.
Your different target audiences will have different challenges and pain points.
Hopefully, you’re already keeping this in mind when creating your content and tagging it accordingly.
Once you do this, you can easily pull together content for each persona and create an email sequence that speaks directly to them.
Website Content Personalization
Buyers Journey
Do you know where your potential customers are on the buyer’s journey?
Someone who’s just hearing about your product for the first time is going to want different information than someone who’s deep in the middle of researching potential options.
You need to make sure that you’re creating a variety of content that reaches the top of the funnel prospects all the way to the bottom of the funnel.
Once you have this content created, you can share it with the appropriate audience. One way to do this is by suggesting more articles to read that are for a similar place in the funnel.
CTA Customization
Calls to action (CTAs) offer your potential customers a clear way to respond to your content and help move them down the funnel.
You should be testing out different CTAs and noting which ones work best.
You can use customized CTAs to deliver a highly-personalized action step.
This first example is a basic CTA. It’s good, but it’s very general.
Image created by author via Canva, November 2022
This CTA is personalized. We know that Jim is interested specifically in laptops, so we personalize the message for him.
Image created by author via Canva, November 2022
Personalization Tools
Creating customized content can seem overwhelming at first, so it’s best to pick one area and test it until you learn what works well for your organization.
And there are plenty of tools out there to help you enable personalization in your content, such as Keystone, Recombee, and Algolia.
Are you looking to advance your digital strategy and put your company on the path to success?
Whether you’re a business owner working with an agency or a digital marketer who needs more bandwidth, one of the biggest challenges you face is setting yourself apart in this oversaturated landscape.
The most impactful campaign strategies aim to move the needle on value creation and help you reach your goals.
Building trust with your agency and establishing a solid marketing foundation is a surefire way to take your business to the next level.
On October 12, I moderated a webinar with CallRail’s special guests, Eric and Erin Wilder, Co-Founders of 81 & Sunny Digital Media.
The Wilders walked through ways to have a clear, transparent, and trusting partnership with your agency that drives results.
Here is a summary of the webinar. To access the entire presentation, complete the form.
Key #1: Transparency
There must be trust from the beginning. Transparency is essential from the start, especially if the advertiser has been burned in the past.
Never leave an advertiser feeling left in the dark; instead, prove how every dollar is being invested. It’s important to show what is being done.
In addition, be sure that all ad accounts belong to the advertiser; they should walk away with their data at the end of the partnership.
To ensure programs are set up for success from the start, the math always needs to make sense.
For example, before launching any campaign, an agency should understand the advertiser’s profit margins and what kind of cost per lead (CPL) or cost per action (CPA) needs to be achieved to break even or be “successful.”
You’ll need to understand the competitive landscape, your goals, and whether a program makes sense – even from the beginning.
Set realistic expectations regarding investment level and ROI. Do not overpromise immediate success because it takes time and data to get there.
Success can be measured in returns or by “breaking even” while achieving growth in customer base.
A calculator can show investment and ROI expectations with all outside variables.
81 & Sunny for CallRail, Oct 2022
Once you know your success formula, you can increase your scope further.
When you know the data, you know where to optimize. And that’s closely related to the next key.
Key #5: Track Everything
The data always tells the real story. User behavior is ever-changing, and the consumer may surprise you!
Here’s how you can track every dollar invested:
Use native tracking tools from Google and Facebook when starting.
Add call tracking to enrich your data set if launching a program with two channels (for example, Google & Bing or Google & Facebook).
Using the enriched conversion data, make smarter and faster optimizations to your overall marketing campaign, including shifting the budget from one channel to another based on cost per sale.
As a result of knowing the data, you can understand not just the cost per lead but the cost per sale by channel.
Ultimately you’d want to eliminate doubt about investment in specific channels based on real results.
[Slides] 6 Keys Your Business Needs To Win With Your Marketing Agency
Here’s the presentation.
Join Us For Our Next Webinar!
How To Adapt To Google’s Helpful Content & Core Updates
Learn how Google’s Helpful Content & Core Updates can work in your favor. How can you adjust your content strategy to comply with Google’s latest updates? Discover how helpful content can improve your search rankings.
Are customers finding relevant, informative content when they search for your business or visit your website?
How do you create a more seamless experience devoid of friction from the start of the sales journey?
Creating meaningful experiences through personalized content is a great place to start.
If you’re not consistently testing, analyzing, and refining your customer experience strategy, you risk losing your current and potential customer base.
One of the most integral components of the customer experience is content marketing.
Yet, many content marketers neglect to create relevant and useful content, instead focusing on how the content benefits their business rather than the customer.
In this post, we’ll explore what exactly personalized content is, how it benefits the end user, examples of personalization, and how to create a successful content personalization strategy.
Let’s get started.
What Is Personalized Content?
Customers crave personalization in every aspect of life – from their shopping preferences to the types of food they eat and the home decor styles they desire.
They are more likely to spend their time and money on products and services that align with their preferences, wants, and needs.
For example, say you’re shopping for black winter boots on a retailer’s website and view multiple product pages featuring different boots, but don’t actually purchase anything.
When you exit the page, you’re later sent a promotional email for 20% off the retailer’s winter jackets.
In this instance, you might ignore the retailer’s email and even unsubscribe entirely from its email list, as you are being served irrelevant content.
This example halts the user’s journey rather than moving them further down the sales funnel.
It would have been a more worthwhile strategy to deliver engaging content based on the customer’s predetermined shopping preferences and the items they are actually looking for.
The Case For Building A Content Personalization Strategy
Content personalization strategy entails leveraging online consumer data insights to deliver relevant content.
By consistently monitoring and analyzing this data, brands can, in turn, better understand their end users’ interests and motivations.
Surfacing relevant and timely information improves the online user experience, leading to higher conversions and sales.
Research shows that 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a tailored experience, furthering the need for a personalized content marketing strategy.
The results of content personalization are tangible for businesses too.
Ninety-seven percent of marketers report a measurable lift from their personalization efforts.
Additionally, a separate study found that 51% of retailers with an end-to-end personalization strategy earned 300% ROI or more.
Knowing personalization can improve conversion rates, how can content marketers improve this effort? We’ll explore that next.
How Can I Personalize My Content?
Creating individualized content sounds ideal in theory, but how can your business effectively take on this endeavor?
As a savvy marketer, you should understand the demographic factors and ideal target personas that make up your audience.
Your audience probably has different wants and needs.
Thinking back to the previous winter boots example and applying it to your audience, different members of your audience likely have varying budgets, style preferences, and uses for the boots.
This is where audience segmentation comes into play.
Whether your business uses Google Analytics, another web analytics service, or a personalization software solution, you can break down your audience segments into groups.
By breaking down your audience segments and behaviors, you will better understand the types of content each group will engage with most and what will resonate best.
Generally, four methods can be used for audience segmentation, which we will explain further below.
Demographic Personalization
Demographic personalization entails segmenting your audience based on their demographic makeup and other behavioral factors. This may include targeting a customer based on their:
Age.
Geography.
Language.
Gender.
Job title.
Devices used.
Browser.
Screen resolution.
Device category (desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.).
And more.
Demographic personalization can help provide more relevant information, but it shouldn’t be the only way your business segments your audience.
Persona-Based Personalization
Every business should have a strong understanding of its ideal buyer persona – from what your target customer looks like to how they shop, work, and behave.
Persona-based personalization goes a level deeper than just understanding your audience’s demographics.
It entails understanding purchase drivers, pain points and challenges, and the user’s role in the purchasing decision.
For more complex purchases, there are likely several key personas you’ll want to develop content for.
Personalizing content to each key decision-maker allows you to connect with a wider audience of stakeholders and address their concerns more effectively.
For example, a chief financial offer (CFO) may want to learn how you can solve their problems for less. A manager may focus on ease of use, training, and implementation.
Each persona will have a different pain point. It’s up to your business to explain how you can solve these diverse pain points for each stakeholder.
To obtain this deeper level of information, ask your customers to fill out a brief online survey post-purchase.
Keep the online survey short; each question asked should have a purpose for evaluating either the customer or your business.
You can also build customer profiles through your email marketing efforts. Ask your customers to opt into your emails during your checkout process.
Allow customers to select their email preferences, from the type of content they want to receive from your business to the frequency of emails they’d like to receive from you.
These insights will help you discern the types of content your customers want to receive from you.
Buyer-Journey Personalization
Delivering content based on where users are in the sales funnel is crucial.
For example, if a customer found your business through search, they’re likely in the awareness stage and comparing you to competitors.
They’re seeking more information to help guide their purchase decision at this stage.
A business may benefit from sharing content in the form of a blog post, video, or social content in the awareness stage.
If a customer already has made previous purchases with you, they’ll want more personalized content.
In the previous retailer example, if the customer bought black boots from you before, perhaps they’ll be enticed to purchase from you again with a 15% off SMS message.
When your digital marketing team creates compelling content that anticipates and matches the buyer’s interest and stage of the sales journey, you increase the chances of conversion and drive more qualified leads.
Content insights will also enable digital marketers and sales teams to better understand what content is most impactful, so you can better tailor your content calendar and frame your sales approach when it is time to connect.
Individual-Specific Personalization
The three aforementioned approaches to personalized content will help elevate your personalization strategy. However, you’re still crafting marketing content for a larger target audience.
Customers want to feel like more than just a number.
An Adobe survey found that 42% of consumers say seeing personalized content from a business is somewhat or very important. In the same survey, 35% of consumers stated personalized experiences improve their perception of the business.
It’s clear consumers no longer accept one-size-fits-all content experiences.
Segmenting individual consumers may seem an arduous task to accomplish manually, which is why businesses rely primarily on machine learning and AI technology to accomplish this task.
Through machine and AI learning, content is delivered using first- and third-party data to best serve the consumer’s needs.
This type of customization ensures the consumer is only presented with digital content that is relevant to them. This may look like special offers, dedicated landing pages, specific product recommendations, personal emails, and more.
What Are A Few Examples Of Content Personalization?
Many of the largest, most recognizable industry innovators shape their user experiences around personalization.
Netflix is a common household name and a well-known service to many.
As Netflix shares, personalization plays a large role in its mission.
“Personalized recommendations on the Netflix Homepage are based on a user’s viewing habits and the behavior of similar users. These recommendations, organized for efficient browsing, enable users to discover the next great video to watch and enjoy without additional input or an explicit expression of their intents or goals.”
Google Discover is yet another tool that relies heavily on personalization and curates a feed of content based on a user’s previous searches.
Content that surfaces is unique to the individual and what Google’s automated systems believe to be a good match for the individual’s interests.
For example, if you often search for sports scores or the odds of your favorite football team winning its next game, you’ll likely have a feed filled with sports-related content.
Both of these companies utilize complex machine learning and algorithms to drive their personalization efforts.
While most businesses can’t execute their personalization strategies at the same level as Netflix or Google, personalization solutions can help bridge this gap.
Personalization Isn’t Going Anywhere
The demand for personalization is on the rise, and more marketers are recognizing the benefit of focusing their efforts on improving their customer’s experience.
Netflix, Spotify, Google, Nike, Amazon, and more large companies are prime examples of businesses that excel at personalizing content. Other businesses are on board, too.
A third of organizations are already spending more than half their marketing budget on personalizing digital content. And 97% of organizations plan to maintain or increase their personalization budget over the next five years.
Meet customers’ needs, discontinue broad-based content, and develop or ramp up your content personalization efforts to improve your customer experience (and your ROI).
Screenshot from Slack app, January 2023
Screenshot from Slack app, January 2023
Screenshot from Slack app, January 2023
Screenshot from Slack app, January 2023
Screenshot from Slack app by Editorial, January 2023
