It shouldn’t come as a surprise that consumers and brands are intimately connected. After all, we engage with each other daily, sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in less obvious ways, but always more often than most would think. Brands have become integral to consumers’ lives through paid and unpaid social media posts, digital advertisements, billboards, television, radio, and even in-person interactions—you name it.
That’s why delivering a personalized customer experience in today’s competitive marketplace is no longer a “nice to have”—it’s a must-have. According to eMarketer, 56% of consumers expect their offers to be personalized (up from 52% in 2020), and 73% expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations (up from 66% in 2020).
What is Brand Personalization?
Does anyone else remember when we started getting marketing emails, and seeing your name in the subject line was like magic? Well, today businesses can’t just get by personalizing emails with names, now consumers want a personalized experience to keep them engaged—which requires far more research and a powerful marketing approach to stay competitive.
Brands must begin contextualizing their messages, offers, and experiences to each visitor’s specific profile to remain competitive—think of it like evolution. We’re going from marketing communications to digital conversations, starting with data. This means that gathering, evaluating, and effectively utilizing data on customer demographics, interests, and behaviors will assist you in developing campaigns, content, and experiences that resonate with your target audience.
Why is Brand Personalization Important?
It’s Good for Business
Have you ever heard of the impulse aisle? This is the spot right beside the checkout area in a store, where we find goodies to indulge in while waiting to put our groceries on the conveyor belt. After a long shopping trip, the stores are hoping we’ll treat ourselves to a chocolate bar, or maybe a drink on a hot day, or even the latest gossip mag to keep ourselves entertained later when we take our kids to the park.
If you’ve ever made an impulse purchase in the checkout lane, you’re aware that our emotions also play a significant role in our purchasing decisions. Smart brands need to use contextual marketing to tap into that human connection to increase relevance, build loyalty, and ultimately increase their bottom line.
Customers are more likely to make purchases from brands that are familiar with them and their past purchases or who provide them with relevant messages. If you’re going to accomplish that (which you should), you need a successful strategy for utilizing customer data to deliver timely, relevant, and personalized information and experiences across all platforms.
Customers Expect It
According to a May 2022 Salesforce report, 73% of respondents believe that businesses should understand their particular requirements and expectations, and 62% believe that businesses should foresee those demands.
Let’s look a bit closer at the data to see just how many consumers expect personalized branding:
- 49% of consumers would make additional purchases if offered a personalized experience by a retail brand.
- 62% indicated that they expect personalization and that brands who don’t offer this experience could lose their business.
- This is up from 42% in 2021, showing how personalization is becoming a competitive advantage for brands.
- 80% of business leaders say customers who receive personalized shopping experiences spend $34 more (on average).
Consumers Reward Businesses That Get It Right
According to a McKinsey report, more than 76% of consumers claimed that receiving tailored messages was a significant motivator for them to consider a brand, and 78% claimed that such information increased their likelihood of making a second purchase.
Personalization is particularly successful at fostering long-term loyalty and repeat engagement. Recurring interactions provide more data that businesses can use to design experiences that are ever more relevant, generating a flywheel effect that increases customer lifetime value and loyalty over the long run.
Unfortunately, Brands Aren’t Equipped to Meet Personalization Demands…
eMarketer found that only 35% of companies feel as though they have achieved omnichannel personalization, and only 47% of companies offer personalized marketing based on live customer data—that means over half of companies are missing out on a crucial part of marketing personalization.
If brands don’t have the tools they need to retarget consumers, then they need to ask for help from marketing agencies that can get the job done. But sometimes an agency might not have all the tools available in their arsenal to get the job done.
That’s where MatchCraft comes in.
MatchCraft AdVantage
MatchCraft is a premier platform for selling and managing digital marketing campaigns. Digital Marketers and agencies come to us to perfect campaigns for their clients while using our state-of-the-art software. Our robust platform handles most of the grunt work for you by ensuring your campaigns are running at maximum efficiency, freeing up your time and resources for growth.
So, how can MatchCraft’s AdVantage help your digital marketing agency help brands personalize their marketing tactics?
Our platform utilizes targeted display ads to build top-of-mind awareness with consumers as they navigate to different websites throughout the day. Another tool we use is Remarketing, which reaches users who have already shown an interest in a business, reminding them of products and services, and extending special offers, which increases the likelihood of a conversion.
Are you ready to start offering world-class brand personalization to your digital marketing agency clients? Then it’s time to contact MatchCraft. We’ll start by scheduling a needs assessment, where you will meet with a member of our team to discuss your goals and aspirations. Then we’ll demonstrate how to leverage our platform to work for your goals.
Next, you’ll receive a custom plan that works for not only you and your business but for the potential clients waiting to one-up their marketing. Finally, you’ll start selling campaigns.
Interested? Schedule your business assessment with MatchCraft to get started.