When content packs a punch, you know it. Likes and shares go up, your sales staff raves about the new product sheets, and the leads start rolling in. You may know effective content when you see it, but creating it is a different story. There are elements you must have, and one of those is personalization.
With a personal touch, audience members can instantly connect with your pieces. They can see themselves in your words, videos, and scenarios. Personalization also speaks directly to your audience, whether it’s staff members or potential clients. However, most creatives discover it’s almost impossible to churn out custom content without the right resources. Here are four tools to make it easier.
1. Content Management Systems
OK, you have a sales team to build and nurture relationships. Sometimes they hit a home run when they step up to the plate. But often even your top sellers must take more than one swing. Leaving behind sales and product sheets is one way to keep your business on people’s minds.
While the “meat” describing your company’s products can stay the same, your sales reps will want to personalize the content. Adding their contact information ensures each seller gets credit for the sale. Plus, it’s an effective way to establish a relationship by putting a face to a name. The trick is to have a way for your sales team to customize otherwise standardized content.
You don’t want them to be forced to reinvent the wheel each time. A component content management system prevents this by housing pieces like sales sheets that may need tweaking. Employees can pull up content they need, insert their info in a personalized section, and be on their way. Your marketing team only has to create each piece once. In addition, the platform streamlines internal content requests and electronic distribution.
2. Social Media Platforms
Online ads can be annoying, but usually when that’s the case, it’s because they’re irrelevant. If you’re scrolling through your news feed on social media, you might think certain advertisements are out of place. Say you live in Rhode Island and notice a business in California is inviting you to a “local store.” Or you see an ad for meat products, but you’re a die-hard vegetarian. Neither of these advertisements will woo you because they’re not personalized.
Fortunately, businesses can avoid this by using social media platforms to target audiences based on personal characteristics. These traits can be general, such as gender, age, and location. But they can also be more granular, such as behaviors that allow companies to retarget website visitors. For example, say someone reads your blog post describing one of your products but doesn’t buy anything. A digital ad can remind them why they read your post, redirecting them to your site to (hopefully) convert.
Using social media to target specific audiences may require syncing customer relationship management and website tracking software. Even so, it’s usually worth the extra effort. Personalization can increase the ROI of marketing spend by five to eight times while boosting sales by 10%. Relevant social media content can persuade more minds and hearts than mass market ads in search of an audience.
3. Customer Relationship Management Software
Speaking of CRMs, these dynamic tools offer a wealth of content creation abilities. Your business can harness the power of personalized emails and A/B tests to see which individualized tactics hit home. Customized email content can drive sales, as 60% of consumers buy something because of email marketing. Also, 83% of customers are willing to share their data for personalized experiences.
But your business needs a way to collect, store, and leverage the details consumers want to share. CRM platforms let you create segmented databases so you can fine-tune your email messages. Tactics like putting names in subject lines and sending targeted content based on previous behaviors are automated. Once you set up templates for newsletters, welcome emails, and promo messages, custom workflows can deliver them.
Individualized content can also go out based on where audience members are in the buyer’s journey. Perhaps a group of prospects needs a nudge to see how your company’s solutions solve their problems. A personalized invitation to an upcoming webinar is a way to recapture their attention. So is a message with links to related blog posts, videos, or landing pages. Likewise, existing clients might benefit from custom discounts, product education, and loyalty programs.
4. Online Quiz Apps
Online quizzes can engage your audiences, especially if the answers help customize your company’s product recommendations. It doesn’t get more personalized than solutions tailored to each potential client’s needs. You see this with skincare products, weight loss programs, and meal kits.
Before people commit, they answer a bunch of questions about their pain points and preferences. Digital quiz software lets your business create interactive questions to determine what information your audiences see. A 20-something single vegan will interact with completely different digital content than a household of three carnivores. These tools help deliver a custom online experience from the awareness to the post-sale support stage.
Your business can also use online quiz apps to send personalized emails and make web pages more interactive. Say you’re a cell phone company with trade-in options for people who want to buy new phones. You can integrate a quiz into your online store to show how much clients will receive for their old devices.
Shoppers plug in the brand name and model to get a dollar amount the app automatically deducts from their cart. If they abandon their carts, you can send a reminder email to encourage them to follow through. For consumers who convert, you can use their phone preferences to personalize their online accounts and educational content.
Creating Personal Experiences
Delivering good content is hard enough. Adding effective personalization to the mix makes it even more challenging. Nonetheless, custom experiences best serve the needs of consumers and internal audiences. With tools ranging from component content management systems to online quizzes, your business can add a personal touch to any piece.
Also read: 5 Ways to Promote Your Freelance Consulting Business on Social Media
