Customer experience has become a hot topic in recent years as marketers seek to retain and grow their customer bases. In order to do so, brands must both increase customer loyalty and also improve brand loyalty; both of which are best achieved through a personalized customer journey. But how exactly can brands accomplish this and reap the benefits of a more personalized approach? The answer is through hyper-personalization. Let’s take a closer look at what it is, how it differs from traditional personalization, and how it can deliver increased customer satisfaction and loyalty to your brand.
What is hyper-personalization?
According to the Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic report, ‘hyper-personalization’ is defined as “the ability to use customer data to deliver contextually relevant content and offers that are specifically tailored to each consumer’s preferences.” It essentially means that your brand will be able to understand individual customers and serve communications to them on a more individual level than ever before. This increase in relevance leads to higher customer involvement and therefore improved levels of engagement which builds a strong bond between brand and consumer. In turn, this creates a sustainable competitive edge which enables brands to gain market share from their competitors and stay one step ahead in the ever-changing market.
How is hyper-personalization different from traditional personalization?
The main difference between traditional personalization and hyper-personalization is that the former focuses more on product promotions while hyper-personalization takes things one step further by utilizing other information to better target the consumer and provide real value to them during their customer journey. According to Tim van der Meer, Chief Analytics Officer at SAS Institute, “the next stage of evolution is about applying data from across the enterprise in order to gain a more complete understanding of the customer and their preferences, challenges, and objectives.” While this information may be harder to come by, it is ultimately more valuable when it’s analyzed alongside data such as online behavior patterns, purchase history, and personal preferences in order to deliver truly relevant messages to the customer.
How can brands benefit from hyper-personalization?
When done correctly, the benefits of delivering hyper-personalized communication to customers can be hugely beneficial. By leveraging dynamic content (content that can be individually targeted) and channel-specific messaging (messages that each suit a specific channel), brands are able to create tailored experiences for each and every customer on their database. For example, a customer who visits the brand’s website a few times per month will be less interested in exclusive offers than a customer who is actively engaging with the brand across multiple channels every day. Marketers must ensure that they are leveraging the right channel at the right time to ultimately drive the most value to both themselves and their customers.
