Take it from Jeff Bezos, the king of personalisation, who knew from the start that personalisation was the route to global success for Amazon.

 

 

 

Who doesn’t love that one-click buy eh?

So we know that personalisation is a good thing. But what exactly is it and how can it be used to drive sales, loyalty and reputation?

What is personalisation?

Personalisation is not just confined to websites. In fact, it’s not even confined to the internet. This marketing technique was around long before Tim Berners-Lee.

Thanks to the internet, however, personalisation can be achieved on a much more granular level.

There are two primary types of personalisation:

• Role-based: grouping customers together according to certain characteristics and traits
• Individualised: providing a service that is solely targeted around the individual user

Role-based personalisation is the sort you see when marketing is sent out to groups of people under the same medical plan. Individualised personalisation is what you see on Netflix, when it serves up a plethora of choice based on your viewing history.

With that in mind, what are just some of the ways that personalisation can be successfully implemented?

 

Personal detail references

the most common examples of this include when we see first names at the top of an email, or when an app welcomes us back with a ‘Hi (Sandra), great to see you again!’.

Coke was particularly ingenious with this tactic:

 

 

 

 

 

Personalised calls-to-action

According to Hubspot, something as simple as adding someone’s name, or referencing their interests in a call-to-action converts a whopping 202% better than the default counterpart.

Consider this next time you see your name emblazoned on the homepage of your favourite online store. Will you click-through?

 

Product suggestions on your website or app 

Getting customers from a simple pair of jeans to a pair of jeans, three shirts and five pairs of socks is as simple as tailoring product suggestions to them. This isn’t just a tactic for retail websites. It can be used by gyms to help their members choose the best membership deal. Insurance comparison websites base their entire model around this method of personalisation.

But be wary, it’s a delicate veil between being RELEVANT and angering customers with unnecessary suggestions, as this one Amazon user discovered:

Dear Amazon, I bought a toilet seat because I needed one. Necessity, not desire. I do not collect them. I am not a toilet seat addict. No matter how temptingly you email me, I'm not going to think, oh go on then, just one more toilet seat, I'll treat myself.

— Jac Rayner (@GirlFromBlupo) April 6, 2018

 

Behavioural triggered emails

This covers everything from abandoned shopping baskets to personalised recommendations based on a recent purchase.

 

Final tips for unbeaten personalisation

If you reeeeeally want to master personalisation, then take Qubit’s handy tips on board. They conducted a study across two billion users to determine what kind of revenue uplift you can get from various personalisation techniques.

They found that the most successful uses of personalisation are scarcity, social proofing and urgency. A focus on these can improve ‘revenue per visitor’ by 6%.

Scarcity – notify customers just as a product they’ve been browsing is going out of stock. This might just be the push they need to make that purchase

Urgency – there are definite overlaps with scarcity here, but the differentiating factor is a deadline. ‘Karen, our membership offer ends in two days. Hurry – go to your shopping basket to complete your purchase.’

Social proofing – this involves telling people what other customers are doing. Like showcasing your most popular product, or a before and after of how a dental appointment improved someone’s appearance.

 

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Xn Leisure is a leading software management solutions provider for the leisure industry. Take a look at Xn Leisure’s extensive catalogue of IT solutions to efficiently manage customer flow here