If executed correctly, content personalization can be extremely effective in helping your site convert better. The fact is, the majority of consumers now prefer a personalized content and web experience. Over half (53%) of online shoppers believe that personalization is valuable. Moreover, personalized content converts 10 times better than ordinary ads, according to a recent study by Invesp.
Consumers no longer have to settle for sub-par services or products; instead, they have the resources to seek out brands and buying experiences that are the easiest, simplest, and most helpful. Consumers have come to expect a personalized experience, which is why providing personalized content can improve conversion rates, decrease bounce rates, and overall, keep your customers engaged in an intimate web experience.
Content personalization presents a huge opportunity for marketers, and it all starts with recognizing differences in your audience. Here are 3 ways you can leverage content personalization to achieve more conversions on your website:
Cross-Channel Product Recommendations
Product recommendations work by accounting for the shopper's past behavior and activity and leveraging that data to provide real-time recommendations to the consumer. Websites like Amazon and now Walmart have built their online marketing strategies upon a foundation of personalized product recommendation technology for consumers. For both companies, offering relevant product recommendations led to more closed sales and a higher average order value, according to liftquest.com article Recommendations should be delivered through multiple channels-email, on-site, and off-site. Modern consumers are constantly switching between mobile, desktop, and tablet devices, so optimizing personalized recommendations for each channel is ideal for maximizing effectiveness.
Personalized Retargeting Ads
Personalized retargeted ads are a type of online display advertising used to recapture consumers who visit a retail site and leave without purchasing an item. These ads use basic data pulled from cookies placed on a user's web browser to display personalized ads that reflect what the user previously viewed on the retail site. Personalized retargeting functions alongside content creation, SEO, and social to help encourage customers to convert.
You may have experienced this with Amazon. Let's say that you visit Amazon and view a pair of new shoes that you're interested in, but you end up deciding not to buy and abandon to go to Facebook. As you're scrolling down your Facebook News Feed, you see a sidebar ad displaying the exact pair of shoes you just looked at on Amazon. This is an example of a personalized retargeted ad.
Online Chat
Real-time online chat is another way that you can engage with your customers while they are on your site. In a survey conducted by Forrester Research, nearly half of consumers said that "having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer."
That being said, there is a fine line between conveniently offering your customers chat support and bombarding them with a pop-up chat window when they visit your page. Real-time chat is a good thing to offer, so long as it is helpful and does not take away from the quality of the user experience.
Takeaway
The fact is, today's consumers are only interested in relevant content. The Internet has given consumers the power to seek out exactly what they need while also giving them the power to avoid anything they don't. You have to convince consumers to buy somehow. The only way to break through today is by personalizing your content and web experience for the user. If you do this, your users will feel like you care about them and understand their needs, which encourages them to buy, and reflects positively on your business.
With the three tactics featured in this blog, you can take your content personalization a step further and engage more directly with your customers. Each one of these more advanced tactics can be used to complement basic personalization techniques.