Your best marketing decision is personalized marketing. To promote something mindlessly is useless. To make every customer feel that the goods or services are offered exactly for them is priceless. That’s awesome for many reasons.
In 2012 one of the US-based large stores had this situation – an angry father of a teenage girl was about to sue the company because they had offered his daughter coupons for products for toddlers. Later they found out that she was pregnant, not telling about this to her dad. The market network had predicted it before her father found that out.
Discussing the above example, we might consider that quite frightening or think of it as an example of a great marketing approach. Anyway, that’s one of the situations when business took personalized marketing to the next level.
We do not suggest you predict teenage pregnancies. Instead, we offer you a chance to look at all the new horizons it may reveal if you take your marketing strategy seriously and, well, personally.
Why is personalized marketing activity a good idea?
- It provides you with a specifically targeted audience effectively;
- Personalized content is, usually, better and powerful;
- Your brand recognition receives additional boost;
- You may build a close relationship with your customers;
- The overall look of your business will be kind and caring;
- And, eventually, it helps to boost your sales.
#1. Coca Cola

Back in 2011, Coca Cola started to put popular names on its bottles. Remember the “Share a Coke” campaign? Well, that increased their sales by up to 7%. What is fabulous here is that it was the first substantial growth increase in the last four years. The point was to address not some random mass of people, but exactly Josh, Mike, and Karen. And that idea did a great job!
The idea behind the idea is that people will more likely take the bottle with their name on it. After the first polls, it appeared that customers were searching for a bottle with their names. The next step, which is currently taken and tested, is to start sales of bottles with different vacation destinations like Fiji or Canary Islands.
That forms a psychological connection between the idea of the rest and a brand name. And, of course, everyone who buys a bottle has a chance to win a voyage to the chosen destination.
Moreover, Coca Cola launched a website that could help you to write everything you wanted on your bottle for $5. That was too much, and the idea of personal bottle customization failed, since no one liked to take extra steps and to pay extra money just to get their names or messages on a bottle.
The key point: While working on personal customization of the product, keep in mind that people do not want to do extra things and pay for it.
#2. Amazon

Amazon is the one that exploited personalized marketing as an essential part of its strategy from the very beginning. In 2013 the company enacted the overall use of recommendation algorithms. It studied your points of interest during your Amazon catalog search and offered recommendations based on your interests.
Yes, everyone today has something like that, but in 2013 AI-supported algorithm, which pretty fast learned all your points of interest, was something new. It had its flaws, but since then, it has been upgraded numerous times. Today when you seek something on Amazon, you’ve got not merely advises, it shows you something you may like, but don’t know about it yet.
The fascinating thing here is that if you search for dog treats, Amazon will memorize your favorite brand and won’t try to impose something cheaper or something useless. And with the flow of time, it only gets better. Awesome branding is a nice idea, but if people don’t know where to look for your brand, they’ll skip it eventually.
Such an approach is great because it allows you to uplift your general sales rate with the help of so-called “unplanned purchasing decisions.” Customers will gladly buy useful things they were not planning to purchase a minute ago if your personalization algorithm does its homework.
The key point: Make users discover new things that, meanwhile, somehow interconnected with their interests and might prove to be useful to them.
#3. Cadbury

One of their recent promo campaigns included the “Flavor Matcher” application launch. That was an app that matched users with one of twelve flavors. The app scanned their Facebook profile photos and created personalized videos. That was both – fun and charming. And that was a great sales boost for the new line of flavors.
Customers appreciated this campaign due to its unusual approach and fun. Also, it provided people with the original content worth sharing in their social media. 90% of users who downloaded the app watched their video till the end, 12,23% shared it on Facebook.
What is great here is the fact that Cadbury received a great promo campaign out of nothing. People adore sharing various things if they are beautiful and fun. And Cadbury has managed to provide them with both. Numerous prizes and brand refreshment were just a nice addition.
And don’t forget about the emotional part. The campaign was highly praised because it hit people’s emotions. When selling something, it is always better to create strong emotions. While sadness can be a great tool, it is always better to make people smile and melt their hearts.
The key point: People are ready to help you with promoting something. All you have to do is to provide them with content that is worth sharing and spreading. And don’t forget about emotions. The easiest way to do that (without developing an app) is to create custom videos that will generate likes and comments, encouraging users to share it on their social media pages.
#4. Nike

You can be a king of backlinking, and you may work with the best links management companies, but if you want to win people’s hearts, you have to look at Nike. What they did during their “Your Year” campaign was the quintessence of a personalized approach. Because they gathered all the personal data, they accumulated through all the time and turned it into a great personal video.
The result is over 100,000 small clips based on the data gathered from Nike’s apps and exercise-tracking products. Videos describe personal sports achievements during the year, making people feel like professional athletes. Besides, videos include personal geographical features, landmarks, and even local weather.
It is a good video to share with friends, and a great way to sum up all the personal physical activity of the year. That is awesome for including into the New Years’ resolutions. That is a personal list of achievements, a roster of things to be proud of. That is something that made hundreds of thousands of people very happy.
And turning a vast amount of gathered personal data into pure happiness associated with your brand is always a great idea. Satisfied customers turn into the ambassadors of your brand. They’ll show their sports achievements while promoting your brand. Isn’t it awesome?
The key point: Satisfied customers will sell your brand to everyone. Using all the amount of personal data for a personal approach can be a win-win strategy.
#5. Netflix

At first glance, Netflix is doing what Amazon did. They exploit an algorithm to offer more content, basing on the things you’ve watched before. But what is more important, they’ve taught not to offer drama shows to a sci-fi fan. But wait – there is more.
Nearly the first thing you may see at their website is a homepage fully adjusted to your personal interest, preferences, and previously watched series. Everything is personalized, including banners, recommended movies, and advertising they show to you.
Finally, what is the most exciting thing Netflix did and took personalized marketing to the next level, is a personal episode of a show. In 2018 they released an episode of the “Black Mirror” series. During certain moments of the movie, the viewer can decide what will happen next, thus, affecting the story.
Recent research demonstrates that such an innovative user experience approach has adjusted their loyalty to the brand. By choosing different options, customers feel that they are able to affect the story’s outcome, thus, improving their experience of interaction with Netflix. It encourages people to return.
The key point: The most impressive way to personalize marketing is to be creative with all the data at your disposal. It may take a lot of hard work, but it will pay off.
What to consider when working on a personalized marketing campaign?
Summing up all the mentioned above, there are several key features that should be highlighted.
- Know your targets. Create the most detailed portrait of your target audience based on the data you’ve gathered.
- Dynamic content. Make sure different groups of your audience see the most relevant content to increase their personal experience.
- Aim well. Learn what social platforms are the most attractive for your target audience, and what sort of content they’ll more likely interact with.
- Consider the platform. Be aware of which platform – smartphones, PC, laptops – is the most popular among your audience.
- Think different. Do not follow someones’ steps mindlessly and seek your approach. New ways are always better.
Your Turn
Front-rank marketing specialists carefully consider personalized approach as the next step in overall development of marketing. Today’s technologies, in general, allow speaking nearly to any person you’d like. You can learn lots of things about your audience, and it depends on you and what you are going to do with this info. Personalization is about looking at things from a customer’s perspective. So, in fact, it is the basis of any marketing approach, taken to the absolute next level.
About the Author!
Marie Barnes is a Marketing Communication Manager at LinksManagement and an enthusiastic blogger interested in writing about technology, social media, work, travel, lifestyle, and current affairs. She shares her insights through blogging. Follow her on Medium.
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