Getting customers to patronize a business is not as easy as it is in the first place. It has been made even tougher by the competitive nature of the markets today. To cut through the noise and capture their attention, marketers must go beyond generic, one-size-fits-all content.
You have to identify what they want and need and then proceed to provide that to them. The way to achieve this requirement is content personalization. The effectiveness of content personalization software can be supported by the recent McKinsey research that shows that personalization in marketing can lead to an increase in revenues by 15%.
If you want to see such results, you should leverage behavioral data. When used effectively, it allows marketers to deliver highly relevant content that resonates with the audience on a personal level.
How Behavioral Data Helps in Content Personalization
Behavioral data provides the base for content personalisation since it entails the analysis of customers' interactions, they have with your brand. This data can be used by marketers to effectively understand the customers' needs, concerns, and buying habits. In one way or another, it helps brands to be more effective in producing content that is more relevant to consumers.
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Precise Customer Journey Mapping
Behavioral data enables you to pinpoint key touch points that impact their decision-making from the point of awareness, through the purchase decision, and even after purchase. This level of customer insights can help identify their needs and deliver the right content at each funnel stage.
For instance, if a customer is on the product pages often but does not make a purchase, then this may be due to indecision or lack of information. To help encourage a conversion, you can offer more information about the product, customer reviews, and additional offers. When you match content to the customer's journey, it is timely and relevant; this increases the likelihood of engaging the customer.
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Segmentation Beyond Demographics
Unlike traditional segmentation which depends on demographics, behavioral data segments the customer based on their browsing history, purchase frequency, or engagement level with certain types of content. Demographics such as age, gender, and location will not give a complete insight into what makes customers get into the funnel, while behavioral data provide deeper segmentation based on actions and interests.
It allows you to define micro-segments where you can deliver content that is specific to the customer's behavioral patterns, and thus you can engage customers with content that resonates with their interests and needs.
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Crafting Personalized Content
Customer journey mapping and customer segmentation will give sufficient information necessary for content personalization software that will appeal to each segment. You can then use behavioral data to tweak the content to the customer's interest.
For instance, if one segment of customers often accesses blog articles about sustainable products, you can develop content tailored to show environmentally friendly practices to them. This strategy helps to catch their attention and forms a much more profound bond with your brand.
The complexity of the audience's interests can be easily deciphered, and the content that is relevant to every customer can be created using behavioral data.
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Providing Real-Time Engagement
Behavioral data allows brands to respond to customers' actions as they happen and keep them engaging in real-time. This capability is important in ensuring that content remains relevant as much as possible. Real-time engagement ensures that your brand is always fresh in the minds of your customers and they are encouraged to make a purchase when they are most inclined to do so.
For instance, if the customer abandoned the cart, send him/her an email with related product recommendations or a special offer in the next few minutes. Likewise, real-time data can be used to generate content on the website that changes depending on the activity of the user during the customer's visit to the site.
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Proactive Content Delivery
Predictive analytics combined with customer behavior helps brands predict customer needs and provide content before it is requested. Marketing as a content delivery process makes marketing a strategic and not a tactical function as it not only provides content that is useful to the consumers but also content that is likely to be useful to them in the future.
For example, if a customer often buys a specific type of product, then predictive models can recommend related products or even special promotions before the customer knows that he or she needs them. It also makes your brand more valuable to the customers as they are solving their problems even before they occur.
Bottom Line
With technology advancing every day, the role of behavioral data in marketing is only set to expand. The need for brands to decipher and forecast customer behavior will be even more important as consumers are inundated with options. It is only a matter of time before technology advances and becomes more sophisticated in collecting, analyzing, and applying behavioral data.
Another of the most interesting trends of the future is the use of AI and machine learning with behavioral data. These technologies will further extend the possibilities of a smarter and faster personalization of the content and will help the brands target their customers with highly relevant content.
Your brand can make sure that it's ahead of the curve and ready to capitalize on those opportunities by taking behavioral data to the next level.