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<\/p>\nKnowing content personalization and doing it well are two different things. And if your efforts aren’t generating your desired results, it might be time for a refresh.<\/p>\n
The good news is this: Every small thing you do to better understand content personalization brings you closer to maximizing your content’s impact on its target audience.<\/p>\n
In that spirit, let’s dive into the concept of content personalization. We’ll cover what it is, why it’s essential, and how it can specifically enhance your ABM strategy. Then, we’ll break down some of the best content personalization strategies we use in our own content marketing to help you get started.<\/p>\n
With marketplaces these days completely oversaturated with content, cookie-cutter messaging isn’t going to cut it. You need to create content that speaks specifically to your audience’s unique needs and paint points. Doing so will help you build a quality connection with your customers and stand out from the competition.<\/p>\n
What’s the best way to do that? By getting personal.<\/p>\n
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Content personalization<\/a> is developing and delivering targeted content to specific groups within your wider audience. How does it do that specifically? Normally, through demographic, behavioral, and socioeconomic data.<\/p>\n Netflix is a great example. As you watch something on their service, they collect data on your viewing habits. Then, they use their algorithm to recommend other content they think you\u2019ll like. That way, they increase their chances of keeping you on their service.<\/p>\n A strong content personalization strategy in content marketing goes further. It’s not just about using a customer\u2019s first name in an email or making a recommendation. It\u2019s about using an individual’s preferences, behaviors, and interests to craft tailored content that resonates and engages with them, ultimately leading to increased brand loyalty, trust, and conversions.<\/p>\n In the financial industry<\/a>, this could involve creating highly targeted content based on a client\u2019s investment goals, risk tolerance, and financial stage. For example, if a financial advisor notices a client is nearing retirement age, they can send them a personalized guide, such as “Top Low-Risk Investment Strategies for Your Retirement Portfolio.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The guide would feature projections tailored to the client’s retirement date, anticipated income, and risk profile. This high level of personalization makes the client feel seen \u2014 you’ve anticipated their needs and customized content to their individual goals and preferences, helping to retain them for life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Right now, customers expect a personalized experience. They want to feel like a brand understands them and what they’re going through. And that doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n Right now, customers expect a personalized experience. They want to feel like a brand understands them and what they\u2019re going through. In Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer<\/a> report from this year, 80 percent of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. Not only that:<\/p>\n Alright, enough stats for now. Let\u2019s discuss why content personalization is especially important to an\u00a0account-based marketing (ABM) strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Account-based marketing is where the sales and marketing teams work together to define, identify, engage, and sell to a highly targeted set of client accounts. The sales team gives input on who they want to sell to, and the marketing team creates personalized assets that speak directly to this audience.<\/p>\n Account-based marketing has gained a lot of popularity in the past few years, and it continues to grow, with\u00a094 percent of B2B marketers<\/a> currently using ABM in their overall marketing. If you think about it, it makes sense with the parallel rise of content personalization strategy, since both involve hyper-specific targeting.<\/p>\n Content personalization is at the core of any successful ABM strategy. And they can be extremely successful:<\/p>\n Source:\u00a0<\/em>WARC<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Think of ABM as a high-octane version of content personalization. It’s all about convincing your target customers that you’re the right solution. Everything you create, from ads to nurture emails to website content, speaks directly to your target audience. You want to prove to them that you’re not just another sales pitch. Instead, you want to customize your message to speak to their specific interests and pain points and demonstrate that you understand them.<\/p>\n One of ABM’s main benefits is the way it leverages content personalization across departments. Traditional marketing keeps sales and marketing in separate silos. Collaboration can happen, but it\u2019s not the same as working together in the same room on a specific account. Instead of using a\u00a0sales funnel<\/a>\u00a0designed to target a wide range of hundreds, even thousands of companies, ABM starts with a small, targeted list that ensures your content and outreach are highly relevant, personalized, and informed.<\/p>\n Not sure where to start your content personalization? Let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n Instead of focusing on a big group or single individual, segment your audience into small target groups. Marketers who focus on segmenting often find success. Segmented campaigns can bring up to 760% revenue growth<\/a> for companies. And 77%<\/a> of marketing ROI comes from segmented, targeted, and triggered campaigns.<\/p>\n Despite this, many marketers are still not fully on board the segmenting train. A\u00a0recent study<\/a> showed that over 40 percent of marketers don’t segment. And only 4 percent of marketers segment with multiple data types. That leaves an opening for you and your company to take advantage of.<\/p>\n A few of the identifiers you can use to segment your high-priority audiences include:<\/p>\n Although these five identifiers will get you off to a strong start, you can go even deeper with behavioral segmentation<\/a>.\u00a0Behavioral segmentation\u00a0considers purchasing behavior, benefits sought, product usage, customer loyalty, and user status.<\/p>\n For example, if you were to focus on purchasing behavior, some of the things you would be able to learn about your audience in the decision process include:<\/p>\n If you’re not yet convinced that marketing segmentation is a meaningful content personalization strategy,\u00a0consider the words<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Brian K. McCarthy:<\/p>\n “When we look at a broad market full of all types of customers who want different things from us \u2014 or nothing at all \u2014 we need to break it down into smaller bites so we can be focused and meet the specific needs of each group of customers. So, if we can establish segment 1, segment 2, segment 3, and really understand what they need, we are now in a position to carefully choose which customers we will serve and meet and exceed their expectations.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n A\u00a0<\/span>buyer persona<\/span><\/a> is a basic outline of common traits that individuals in your target audience share. Integrating personas into your content personalization helps you quickly understand what the audience you’re trying to reach is really like. If you don’t use personas, you’ll spend too much time guessing what your audience wants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A good persona has more than just demographic details. It’s all about depth and understanding. The best marketers follow these steps to outline and determine how to best construct a persona.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of these necessary steps include:<\/p>\n If you’re taking a road trip to somewhere you’ve never been, one of the first things you do is type in the destination address on your smartphone. It tells you how long the trip will take, which route you need to go, and what landmarks, gas stations, hotels, and restaurants you’ll pass.<\/p>\n Creating a customer journey map<\/a> isn’t much different. Before you start,\u00a0<\/span>consider which audience you want to focus on. Then, track the different stages of this audience’s journey to ensure you’re providing the right content at “landmark locations” throughout an individual’s journey.<\/span><\/p>\n If that sounds complicated, HubSpot has outlined <\/span>eight key considerations<\/span><\/a> to help you out:<\/span><\/p>\n With those considerations, it’s also important to remember that there’s no single way to develop a journey map. There are even different types of maps. Here are four different types to think about, complements of Kerry Bodine.<\/p>\n Each journey map is designed to achieve different results. Read Kerry\u2019s article above for a deeper dive into them. She does a great job fleshing them out.<\/p>\n So far, everything we’ve discussed revolves around targeting small groups of people. But true personalization occurs when you can get your content personalization down to a segment of one.<\/p>\n But, how do you do that? Simply put, you need to individualize. Individualizing might seem time-consuming, but you can do several simple things to help your audience feel known.<\/p>\n Some of the ways you can individualize include:<\/p>\n If you’re trying to unlock your team’s content personalization potential and budget, sometimes the best strategy is to partner with a content marketing agency that knows what to do.<\/p>\nWhy is content personalization important?<\/h3>\n
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![\"Elevating](\"https:\/\/www.clearvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Customization-to-Boost-ABM.png\")
<\/p>\nElevating Your ABM Strategy with Personalized Content<\/h2>\n
What is account-based marketing?<\/h3>\n
How content personalization fits into ABM<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n4 Content Personalization Strategies to Try Today<\/h2>\n
1. Start with segmentation<\/h3>\n
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2. Personalize with personas<\/h3>\n
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3. Create customer-journey-based personalization<\/h3>\n
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![\"Each](\"https:\/\/www.clearvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Types-of-Customer-Journey-Map.png\")
<\/p>\n4. Ideate to initiate individualization<\/h3>\n
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Outsourcing to Scale Your Personalization<\/h2>\n