The Power of Personalized Digital Experiences

E-commerce and digital experiences offer personalization. So what is personalization in marketing? It’s a strategy of rendering custom and individualized messages and experiences tailored to an individual to increase relevance and appeal. Personalization can work for every segment of the marketing funnel. However, it’s more effective for consumers with an established relationship with the business.

To receive a highly personalized service in brick & mortar establishments, you will likely need to have a long-standing relationship with the business/service (pediatrician, small local businesses) or engage with a high-end retailer or service (premium hospitality, luxury brands, first-class in-flight service), etc.

How does Digital Personalization work?

Digital personalization strategies are powered by multiple technologies that can work separately or in conjunction. The most famous is the now-defunct website cookies that allowed tracking but raised privacy concerns. User registration allows the best personalization experience since it involves a deeper level of trust. Browsing behavior and history empower a lot of personalization. Behavior tracking allows companies to gauge user interest by time spent on content, how many pages were seen, and even if you removed that one item you placed in your cart. Tracking tags are popular with social media services, as these inject a short line of code on a website that allows visitors from social media platforms to be tracked. Emerging technologies such as browser fingerprinting and API visitor tracking show promise in cookie-like functionalities.

Examples of personalized digital experiences

Now that we know what personalization in marketing is and how it works let’s discuss how this strategy can be applied in different ways to digital marketing.

Targeted Advertising – It has happened to everyone. That search you did or that image you clicked is now following you through the web, social media, and ads on your phone. This is targeted advertising at its finest. The data here is delivered via tracking tags, browsing history, past searches, and even your smart speaker searches.
Email Campaigns – Remember the item you took out of your cart? This will trigger emails with product recommendations and reminders to complete your purchase.
Recommendations – Streaming services and entertainment websites like YouTube know you all too well. In my case, I am a big sci-fi fan; every time I visit YouTube, I have a highly curated page with sci-fi recommendations, explainer videos, and other types of content I watch often.
Pricing – On the controversial side, different consumers can vary prices on the same items. Retailers do this practice in physical locations. Your history, location, and behaviors will dictate your price. Do your pricing research on a different browser or in incognito mode.

The rise of artificial intelligence will give way to even more personalization. Will it be too much? Will it make us uncomfortable or make us think twice about what we say near a smart speaker? Certainly, more privacy concerns will come our way, and a new round of privacy laws will be enacted. One thing is for sure; laws won’t be able to keep track as consumers will continue to favor experiences that offer a substantial degree of convenience. On which side are you? Share in the comments below!

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