7 Successful Examples of Customer Personalization

It’s nearly impossible for your customers to feel like you’re talking directly to them when you’re casting a wide marketing net. Consumers are discerning, and they’re not easily persuaded by mass marketing emails or generalized ad messaging. 

According to McKinsey, 71% of customers expect personalized interactions from companies. And 76% get frustrated when personalization doesn’t happen.

Marketing campaigns informed by customer data achieve a higher level of personalization, convincing people to buy your product with the right message at the right time. 

7 successful examples of customer personalization

With access to tools like customer data platforms (CDPs), detailed information about individual customers is readily available. Marketing teams can use this wealth of data to inform their campaigns and deliver personalized experiences at scale. 

Here are seven examples of successful customer personalization. 

1. “Customers also buy” product recommendations

Creating personalized product recommendations is an effective strategy for companies with an e-commerce site. This is a common upselling and cross-selling tactic where you suggest products related to what someone just bought or is about to buy. Suggestions are based on other customers’ past purchase histories when they bought a similar product.

After a customer makes a purchase, redirect them either to a landing page that shows “customers also buy” recommendations or send a post-purchase email that includes these recommendations. Alternatively, be even more proactive with your recommendations by showing these products at checkout before the customer completes their purchase.

2. Retargeting campaigns

Retargeting is a useful personalization tactic to target a specific group of people who have already shown some interest in your brand. You can target people who used to be customers but haven’t bought from – or interacted with – you in a while. Or you can retarget people who’ve taken an action – say, visited a product page several times or added something to their cart – but haven’t converted yet. Cart abandonment retargeting is a common way to retarget people who have already started shopping with you but have not yet hit the “purchase” button.

Target these people with relevant content and ads informed by their previous interactions with your brand. If someone has looked at a product page for blenders, send them an email with a discount code for blenders or target them with social media ads showcasing the product. 

Set up retargeting campaigns on either Facebook or Google. Integrate your website and all your marketing platforms with your CDP so you can easily identify the most lucrative retargeting opportunities. When your website and marketing platforms are integrated with your CDP, you can see all the data in one place and identify behaviors you want to retarget. 

3. Drip email campaigns based on customer journey stage

Rather than emailing everyone on your subscriber list, segment your email marketing list so you can send personalized emails depending on where the customer is in their buying journey.

First, segment your customers based on where they are in the journey. This will help you identify the types of interactions they have with your brand at each stage. Generally, the stages to use are awareness, consideration, purchase or decision, and retention. 

Next, create email campaigns with personalized content and messaging tailored to each stage. For example, if the “consideration” stage includes customers who have looked at specific items but not bought anything, notify that group of people when those items – or similar items – are on sale. Or send users in the “retention” stage emails about a “VIP” program or special discounts. And customers in the “awareness” stage would benefit from emails with informational content about your brand. 

4. Triggering live chat or in-app messaging for certain pages or customers

Proactively offer help to customers with a live chat pop-up or in-app messaging for personalized service. You can set up live chats or in-app messages to be triggered based on the customer’s behavior. For example, if someone stays on a product page for over 10 minutes, you could trigger a live-chat bot to pop up and ask if they have questions about the product they’re looking at. 

Live chats and in-app messages can both be triggered manually or automatically based on a set of predefined rules. You can create rules around visitor information and various behavior metrics like current page, time spent on the website, number of visits, and more. 

5. A/B testing landing pages for different audiences

A/B testing informs personalized marketing efforts. In an A/B test, you show two versions of a marketing asset to your users and, based on the results, determine which version performs better.

If you test out different content and messaging, you’ll be able to see what a specific audience segment engages with. Then you can create campaigns and content personalized to each audience based on the results.

To use A/B testing for personalization, start by choosing your target audience. When selecting the segment, you can choose a broader group of people (e.g., people in a specific stage of the customer journey) or narrow it down to more specific groups (e.g., people who have only visited your website once). 

Create two different landing pages with different calls to action (CTAs), messaging, design elements, or whatever you want to test to identify which one converts most. When you do roll out your A/B tests, don’t immediately roll them out to an entire audience – just to a small group of people within the segment you’re targeting so you can test which they like best.  

When you know which version is the winning version, then you can roll it out to the entire target audience. 

6. Showing customized calls to action based on customer journey stage

Create different CTAs based on a person’s funnel stage. For instance, someone in the awareness stage of the buying journey is going to take a different action than a customer already in the retention stage, so customizing your CTAs will be more effective in increasing conversions. 

For example, a first-time visitor (in the awareness stage) might be more likely to download an e-book. But someone who’s already bought from you (retention stage) would likely click on an ad to buy a product complementing a previous purchase.

Use historical customer data to identify the types of actions customers take at each stage. Then customize your CTAs by setting them up as pop-ups or using them on landing pages, email, and targeted social media ads.

7. Customizing messages based on geolocation

Geolocation helps you target customers with customized messaging that entices them to act in real time. Using geolocation targeting, you can send certain groups a push notification – via SMS or email – based on where they’re currently located to alert them of a sale, product availability, or other relevant events nearby. 

Create a geofence that triggers a message based on a customer’s location. Segment’s CDP, for example, integrates directly with Radar, a location-tracking platform that allows users to set up geofencing. Then, segment the people you want to target based on geolocation. Customers who have already bought from you are a good place to start. You can set up the automation so that whenever they are near a physical store, a push notification is triggered, offering them a small discount or some other incentive for shopping.