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When it comes to hooking customers on your brand, you have to provide the most relevant content you can. Whether the content is delivered in an email, social media post, or printed piece, you want to make sure it’s personalized.

After all, personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates, and marketers have noted a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns. Personalization works, and it needs to be a huge piece of your customer journey.

If you stop and consider it, each of your customers is on a journey. They first heard of you at some point– maybe through a Facebook ad or blog post– and then gained familiarity. Soon, they may have signed up for your email list and purchased a product, becoming a customer.

Each customer’s journey is unique, which is why personalization is such an important component. Today, we’re sharing how brands can use personalization throughout customer journeys to increase message relevance, so that ultimately email marketing brings in as much ROI as possible.

Here’s how to incorporate personalization into the customer journey.

Extract info when subscribers join your list

Marketers often use data on past purchases to personalize messages to their subscribers, but you should start personalizing your marketing campaigns as soon as you can. When someone signs up for your email list, you can extract information that can be used to personalize.

For example, when Topshop fans sign up to receive email messages from the brand, they’re required to add their names, their birth date, as well as their country. Additionally, they’re asked whether they’re a student.

Topshop Extract Info from Email List

Using this information, Topshop can provide personalized content at scale. By automating efforts, Topshop can make sure every subscriber gets a personalized birthday message or emails based on location.

Sign up forms aren’t the only way to collect information, either. You can also use a subscriber’s IP address to gain insight into their location. You can then send personalized emails promoting location-relevant offers.

Tailor recommendations based on past purchases or browsing behavior

When a subscriber takes certain actions on your website, what happens? Using automated or trigger-based emails, you can send messages based on the actions a subscriber has taken. In this way, you can set up automated email flows to ensure that each subscriber receives the most relevant and personalized messages.

If you spend some time browsing dining room chairs on the Room & Board website, the site takes note. Within 30 days, you’ll receive an email promotion for the chairs, highlighting positive reviews.

Sync digital efforts with in-store behavior

There’s a lot of talk about digital marketing efforts, but not much talk about how these efforts can be synced with what happens in a store. However, the perfect time to sign up a customer for an email list is often when they’re in a physical store. You can use the information you gained in-store to send automated follow-up email messages that are personalized.

For example, if you adopt a cat through one of PetSmart’s adoption events, you’ll be asked to sign up for PetSmart’s PetPerks Rewards Program, which entitles you to exclusive promotions. After you sign up, you’ll receive an automated email from PetSmart thanking you for buying “kitten essentials” through the store.

Invite subscribers to your store based on their location

One of the best ways to incorporate personalization into the customer journey is to leverage data around a customer’s location. In this way, you can encourage a customer to come into a physical store, all using email automation.

Kate Spade New York email subscribers receive emails that include information about their nearest store. This store information can be switched out using dynamic content– you can show the closest store based on a subscriber’s location. If you live in Boston, you’ll be encouraged to visit the store on Newbury Street.

Send automated updates

If you have subscriber data, you can use it to send automated updates. You can update them on reward perks or other status information and can remind them to come back to make purchases.

Sephora, a beauty retailer, sends automated updates to their VIB subscribers to update them on their status. The email is personalized to show how many points the subscriber has, as well as how much money they need to spend in order to keep their status.

Ask subscribers how you’re doing

Part of the customer journey is asking for feedback– how has the customer’s experience been? Would they recommend you to friends and colleagues?

You can automate customer surveys to go out after a subscriber completes a certain action. Oak Tree Mazda sends out an NPS survey after a customer takes their car in for service.

Wrap up

When it comes to improving your customer journeys, the answer is marketing automation. Using automation, you can send content to the right people at exactly the right time. Plus, you can use personalization to make sure it’s as relevant as possible.


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