Here’s how you can prepare for hyper-personalization in marketing

Hyper-personalization is one of the latest marketing trends in the spotlight. A study by Epsilon found that 80 percent of consumers were more likely to do business with a company if it offered well targeted, meaningful, and personalized experiences. More consumers are demanding personalization and have even come to expect it.

Traditional personalization uses basic customer data, limiting itself to simple tactics like addressing customers with their first name in the subject line. Meanwhile, hyper-personalization goes a step further by using real-time data to deliver more relevant communications to consumers. This more advanced personalization uses data focused on consumer browsing, purchasing, and behavior.

For instance, personalization may consist of advertising exercise apparel to customers who purchased similar items online the previous year. Hyper-personalization, on the other hand, might include advertising the same workout gear with ads based on the payment method, exact purchase location, social media activity, discounts used, and more detailed data.

There’s no denying that hyper-personalization is an effective way for marketers to generate leads and increase company revenue. However, few marketers have created a strategy for this technology. According to research by Ascend2, only about 9 percent of marketers say they have developed an approach to hyper-personalization. The majority of marketers, totaling 62 percent, are either just discussing it or haven’t acted on hyper-personalization yet.

Becoming an early adopter of this technology will put you a step ahead of your competition. Here’s how to prepare to implement hyper-personalization.

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Refine data collection skills

According to 53 percent of marketers, applying data insights to decision-making is an obstacle to the success of a hyper-personalization strategy. The success of hyper-personalization relies heavily on data. However, the key is to make sure you’re able to collect the right type of data. 

With traditional personalization, marketers were able to get away with collecting basic data, such as a customer’s name and other demographic data. Today, this data doesn’t provide enough information to implement hyper-personalization. You must dig deeper, focusing on behavioral and contextual customer data.

You should have a way to collect detailed customer data, such as geographic location, previous views of product and product pages, time of day they are active, life events, and the response of prior messages. Collecting detailed data will allow you to analyze and apply valuable insights for hyper-personalization.

The more quality data you can collect, the better you can segment audiences and make their campaigns more personalized. People are more likely to purchase from companies that provide genuinely customized messages and relevant offers. 

What’s more, it’s important to focus on making sure the data required for hyper-personalization is available and that you can properly analyze it. If you lack the skills to do so, it’s crucial to receive training to learn more about data analytics and how to apply insights or consider adding someone proficient in data to the team to close the analytics skills gap.

Use customer journey analytics

You’re likely familiar with customer journey mapping, or, visually depicting the steps of a customer journey. However, to take your personalization efforts to the next level, it’s crucial to go more in-depth and use customer journey analytics. While these two concepts share a common goal, their results are very different.

Customer journey analytics bases itself on robust data – or a significant number of individual customer interactions – whereas customer journey mapping uses pictures to represent a small number of customers. Customer journey analytics connects data from every consumer touchpoint, across multiple channels and over time. It’s a data-driven approach to uncovering, analyzing, and shaping the customer journey. 

To implement customer journey analytics, you need a platform that integrates customer data from a wide variety of sources to provide a unified view of the customer. A customer journey analytics platform, also known as a customer data platform (CDP), allows you to understand your target audiences better, and deliver and optimize hyper-personalized experiences.

A CDP is a relatively new type of software that provides marketers with an all-encompassing view of the customer. Although it may sound similar to a customer relationship management (CRM) system, CDPs automatically create customer profiles with data gathered across a variety of channels. A CRM, however, only tracks a customer’s interactions with a company via manual entry.

You can get a jumpstart on hyper-personalization by looking into adding a customer journey analytics software into your team’s arsenal. A CDP helps identify both known and unknown customers, making it an excellent tool for reaching out and marketing to both audiences.

Embrace the shift from personalization to hyper-personalization

Although hyper-personalization hasn’t become mainstream yet, you can’t afford to ignore this compelling technology. Gone are the days of getting by with traditional personalization as consumer expectations are increasing. Businesses that create and implement hyper-personalization strategies will be able to keep up with the increasing demands of consumers while staying ahead of their competition.

Implementing hyper-personalization is no easy task. However, being an early adopter will help you iron out the kinks and get a head start.