Personalization is an important piece of the marketing puzzle.
Recall Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign, a marketing move in which the soft drink giant printed common names on bottles.
This campaign resulted in 25 million additional Facebook followers for Coca-Cola, and turned out to be “one of the best-performing marketing campaigns in Coca-Cola’s history,” according to Investopedia. This is due to its personalized marketing campaign.
How can you, as a small business owner, engage in personalized marketing without going over your budget? Here are a few ideas to get you started.
1. Use customer names in your emails
What word almost always gets your attention?
Chances are, it’s your own name. Hearing or reading your name sends a loud and clear message that certain information was meant for you.
Campaign Monitor reports that personalized email marketing campaigns that include customer names drive up open rates by 26 percent.
So, how do you learn your customers’ names?
Embed a contact form right into your WordPress.com website to collect names and email addresses. Most email service providers (like MailChimp or Aweber) allow you to automatically input those names into the subsequent emails you send.
2. Show your readers related posts
When a visitor finishes reading a post on your website, show them other related posts to create a personalized vibe.
You can enable the Related Posts feature with most WordPress.com themes once you publish more than 10 posts. Related Posts will suggest similar posts to anyone who reads your blog content.
If someone is reading your site content, then they’re likely interested in what you have to say. Once they finish reading an article, seeing suggestions for other relevant ones can make them feel as though your site is tailoring itself to their reading preferences.
For example, if you run a jewelry website and a site visitor reads your post about choosing the perfect engagement ring, they might be interested in reading a related article about the prices of difference gemstones.
This increases the relevance of your content marketing and makes your audience feel as if you choose each article just for them.
3. Give your visitors personalized experiences
If you’re a WordPress.com plugin-enabled plan user, you have access to plugins, many of which allow you to personalize your visitors’ site experiences.
There are several different plugins that can help you achieve this, such as:
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WP A.I Assistant: This plugin lets you ask visitors questions so that you can show them exactly what they came to your website for, whether it’s products or content.
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Sumo: This displays contact forms based on the attributes of your customers, including their locations, what pages they’re on, the types of devices they’re browsing from, and more. It also allows you to collect your new subscribers’ names.
4. Increase your sales with personalized product recommendations
Personalized product recommendations increase conversions drastically.
In fact, Invesp found that 45 percent of online shoppers are more likely to make purchases from sites that offer personalized recommendations.
You’ve likely benefited from personalized recommendations when shopping on sites like Amazon. Amazon displays recommendations for additional products based on your interests and other products you viewed.
If you’re a WordPress.com plugin-enabled plan user, you can use plugins like Custom Related Products for WooCommerce. This displays products that your visitors might want to buy based on their history on your website.
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