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5 steps toward campaign hyper-personalization

In today's data-driven economy, standard campaign personalization alone isn't enough. Customers expect marketers to use their data competently; the ability to personalize appeals using the correct name and contact information is table stakes.

September 22, 2016

By Sandra Peterson

In today's data-driven economy, standard campaign personalization alone isn't enough. Customers expect marketers to use their data competently; the ability to personalize appeals using the correct name and contact information is table stakes. Customers are fast becoming accustomed to higher levels of personalization, such as retailers using data like purchasing history and geographic location.

Hyper-personalization is the next frontier in marketing. It goes beyond the basics like name, contact information and location to address what the customer is interested in right now, drawing from a variety of sources, including in-app behavior, on-website activities and even social media mentions. When done correctly, hyper-personalization can help marketers deliver highly compelling, customized messages.

How effective is hyper-personalized marketing? A Wharton study cited by tlcmarketing.com demonstrated an amazing 50 percent increase in online music purchases for a campaign that mined users' music data for clues, an indication of the approach's potential. But how do you transition from personalization to hyper-personalization?

These five steps can help — and the good news is, you're probably already working with much of the information required:

1. Consolidate data: You've probably already got a database of basic personal information, such as names and contacts. Consider setting up a sign-in feature on your website to make sure your data is up-to-date, and gather contact information from new users. When you offer value in exchange for information and ask for it in a non-aggressive way, this can help you build relationships. Also gather data on customers' browsing activities, and consider adding data analysis findings, profile information, online interactions and social listening information to round out your data cache. 
2. Segment data: Now that you've gathered all of your information in a central repository, do a simple segmentation so you can target customers more precisely. Dividing them by age and gender is a good place to start since customer purchasing habits tend to diverge sharply along those lines. Also take a look at customers' purchasing history to see what conclusions you can draw for current campaigns. For example, if you're marketing a budget camping adventure, older couples who've purchased luxury packages at four-star resorts in the past might not be as responsive as young families would be.
3. Use online and in-app data: After segmenting customers and adding in purchasing information, consider leveraging on-website and in-app behavior to take personalization to a higher level. Some of the world's most effective retailers routinely use this information. For example, Amazon’s reminders about items left in your shopping cart are an effective way to capitalize on customer activity that has not resulted in a purchase — yet. Another effective technique is to showcase items customers with similar interests have bought. These techniques ramp up personalization — and sales.
4. Deploy effective marketing software: Luckily for today's marketers, it's no longer necessary to devote extensive resources to slogging through giant data sets in search of insights. Modern marketing software can parse data efficiently, drilling down to an incredibly detailed level without human intervention and serving up insights that help marketers improve the customer experience. Marketing software is also an important hyper-personalization tool, enabling marketers to customize content, optimize ecommerce and demand generation and improve cross-channel consistency.
5. Place customers in context: The final step in hyper-personalization is to appeal to customers based on what they're interested in right now, and to do that, you need to build in contextual data. This requires focusing on factors like the customer's geographical environment, time of day, etc. For example, a department store might offer a discount on umbrellas and rain coats in a region that is experiencing prolonged stormy weather, or a restaurant might send a tweet about take-out options during the workday when busy parents are thinking about what to have for supper.

Personalization as a campaign strategy is now considered the norm. People are used to receiving marketing pitches that accurately use their name and contact information, and thanks to savvy retailers who have put their copious customer data to good use, consumers increasingly expect higher-level personalization that takes into account their purchase history, demographics and digital footprint.

That means marketers who want to compete have to step up their game. By following these five steps, you'll be well on your way to taking your marketing results to the next level with hyper-personalization.

Sandra Peterson is VP of marketing at Absolutdata. She brings extensive global B2B and B2C marketing expertise from leading brands like Apple, Palm, Adobe, and Nvidia. With 20 years of Silicon Valley experience, and has applied her passion for new marketing technologies to a variety of industries including mobile, cloud-based software services, consumer electronics, etail and retail and the big data and analytics services space.