Know to impress, engage, sell and retain.
According to some research, a user views an average of 4,000 advertisements a day, the urban environment around us is saturated with images, not to mention the image overload that social media has accustomed us to.
But how can a brand succeed in standing out in all this “din”?
Marketers and strategists have realized that every advertising message, every communication has its ideal time to reach its target audience and that personalizing the customer experience is the real key to the success of their strategies.
Content personalization: the impact on your lead generation and nurturing strategy
Aspartly anticipated in our blog article on lead generation strategies, personalization of the user experience plays a key role even at the initial stage when the user has not yet chosen to reveal his or her identity.
In fact, the information that he releases during the navigation path (pages consulted, products viewed, geographical area from which he navigates..) can be used as a basis for an initial profiling strategy aimed at providing content in line with his needs and interests.
Blog Articles
Banner
Call To Action
Products
Ebook and Checklist
The above listed is just a sample of the content that can be personalized to ensure a valuable browsing and purchasing experience for the user, right from the first visit.
Think, for example, of an eCommerce site. To all users browsing it for the first time, we could show on the home page a selection of recommended items chosen from those most viewed or purchased by users. But the level of personalization could be higher: let’s imagine that among the anonymous users who visit our eCommerce there is a cluster of users who have visited it in the last 30 days. To such a cluster it might be interesting to recommend products from those that, for example, it has recently viewed.
The same kind of logic could certainly be applied to the personalization of content whether it be blog articles, posts, or banners.
But as data and information inherent to each individual user is collected and progressively enriched, personalization activities can reach high levels and ensure increasingly high-performing and “tailored” experiences.
Pop-ups and behavioral messages: get your users’ attention
Among the possible on-site banner personalization activities, behavioral messages represent, without a shadow of a doubt, the most widely used mode.
Impactful and able to grab the attention of even the most distracted user, they personalize the real-time browsing experience and display content and products, prompting the Internet user in the most appropriate way.
The best-known example of the various types of behavioral messages is the on-exit pop-up that is shown at the very moment the user is about to close the site navigation window and usually contains a meaningful incentive in exchange for some contact information, usually the email address.
Pop-up on exit but not only that, behavioral messages include:
Message on PushBar and SideTab
Warning Message
Static Top Message
So many formats, one goal, to stimulate the user to take a certain action. That is why when configuring a behavioral message we must always keep these principles in mind:
clear purpose: the purpose of the action as well as the benefit/benefit to the user must be clear and easily understood;
Clear language: it is important that the message carries a clear and unambiguous call to action so that the user is guided to a specific action;
utility: especially if we activate a message for the purpose of collecting data and information about users (imagine a survey), it is important to provide the user with something in return whether it is insightful content or a discount on the next purchase.
Contact profiling and qualification: easier and faster with dynamic forms
More and more users are agreeing and willing to release personal data and information in exchange for personalized customer experiences, but unfortunately, companies are often not ready to respond effectively.
While much of the information pertaining to browsing and purchasing interests can most easily be collected by analyzing user behaviors, other data related to interests, demographic information (e.g., date of birth) can be collected if we ask users direct questions.
Forms and surveys can thus prove to be foolproof tools to better qualify our contact. However, we must remember that, in this case, the more the request for data will be contextual to the user’s browsing path, the more the user will be inclined to release useful information, perhaps in exchange for a real benefit (personalized offers, tailored content), which is part of the implementation of an effective customer engagement strategy.
Here are three different types of forms that can be implemented for an effective profiling strategy.
Surveys or polls: these represent the most complex type of form but, undoubtedly, the one that can allow very detailed collection of information. This is why you should be able to best engage the user.
Soft Lead: simpler forms such as newsletter subscription forms that do not require particularly articulate data fall into this category. Again, the advice to make clear to the user the benefit he or she can get from that particular action (e.g., receiving a preview of promotions, a discount on the first purchase…) applies.
Hard Lead: these are forms usually deputed to collect more detailed information (company, date of birth, professional role, interests..) and therefore perhaps involve receiving valuable in-depth content such as an ebook, case study, infographic.
An ‘effective web personalization strategy undoubtedly constitutes the key to making the most of our users’ customer experience once we have data and information about them, but let us not forget that it can also be a winning strategy during the contact acquisition and qualification phase itself.
