Personalized marketing: Definition, examples & benefits

Do you want to run a customized marketing strategy based on your customers' past experiences and preferences? Then, personalized marketing is for you. With the development of digital marketing, many businesses have started to benefit from personalized campaigns specific to their customers. Continue reading and learn to expand your customer base and reach your goals!

In this article, we talk about the definition of personalized marketing and the proper times to use it. We also teach you how to adapt personalized marketing in your business in 6 steps. We include 7 successful personalized content examples that will inspire you. Finally, you can continue reading our article to learn the advantages of personalized marketing.

What is personalized marketing?

Personalized marketing is a valuable marketing strategy that provides customized content based on customers' past experiences, preferences, and needs.

This marketing strategy helps you deliver personalized suggestions, offers, and campaigns based on the data you obtain. Thus, you can create a more comprehensive customer portfolio, increase satisfaction, and increase sales.

Right times to use personalized marketing

You can use personalized marketing for many purposes and in many situations. However, there are some situations where developing a personalized marketing strategy can increase your business's success. Below are some of the best times to use personalized marketing:

Ideal times to use personalized marketing

1. If you want to expand your customer base

Developing a personalized marketing strategy will help your business grow and attract new customers. Creating personalized content will make your customers feel more special. It will help you grab their attention more efficiently and drive them to make a purchase.

2. At creating a loyal customer profile

You can convert your potential customers into your current customers by using personalized marketing. At this point, you need to increase the probability of your current customers purchasing again. To achieve this, you can offer special offers to your customers or take advantage of loyalty programs.

3. When you don't want to lose your customers

Did you know you can prevent customer churn by developing a personalized marketing campaign? You can use personalized marketing to encourage your customers to buy again. In this sense, you can offer personalized campaigns based on their purchasing history and expectations. These personalized campaigns can push your customers to repeat purchasing behavior.

4. During your campaign and promotion times

Campaign and promotion periods allow your business to increase your sales. However, you should prefer personalized campaigns rather than general ones to achieve the actual effect. Offering general discounts and campaigns is an effective way to increase sales. However, offering special offers to your customers will ensure the continuity of this effect.

5. If you want to deliver real-time personalized experiences

You can send real-time personalized campaign messages based on your customers' behavior. It will help you capture instant interaction with your customers. You can offer the most appropriate offer according to their current needs. Thus, you can positively affect your customers' purchasing behavior at that moment.

How to adapt personalized marketing in your business

You've learned what personalized marketing is and the correct times to use personalized marketing. Now, it's time to learn how to adapt personalized marketing to your business. You can quickly create your business's most appropriate personalized marketing strategy by following the 6 steps below:

Steps for personalized marketing

Step 1: Collect data

Collecting data about your potential customers is vital to delivering personalized content. Gathering your existing customers' website visits, purchase history, click-through rates, and personal information can help you create relevant content. At this point, you can conduct marketing research to collect customer data. It will allow you to gather their feedback and develop a more robust, customer-based marketing campaign.

Step 2: Segment your audience

As customers, we are all part of one or even more than one customer segment. So, what does this mean, and what does it do? We can describe it as dividing customers into segments based on common characteristics or interests. Doing this allows you to execute a more effective and specific strategy. This way, you can develop customer-focused marketing content for each segment you identify.

Step 3: Create personalized content

In this step, you can create personalized dynamic content or special offers for individual customers. You can offer quick, personalized subject lines or limited-time discounts on products your customers are interested in.  Integrating your campaign into customers' interests will increase the likelihood of their long-term interest. However, you must ensure your promotions are engaging and credible.

Step 4: Choose the proper distribution channel

In this step, your marketing team should choose a distribution channel suitable for the personalized marketing strategy. Choosing the right distribution strategy helps you effectively target customers and create a satisfied customer profile. You can especially run a personalized marketing campaign on platforms where your target audience is active. 

For example, you can share your personalized product recommendations through personalized email marketing or personalized video marketing, which are among the most common distribution channels. You can also use marketing tools to help your business better promote its services and products.

Step 5: Review and implement your campaign

After completing all of these steps, you should do a final check of your personalized marketing strategy. It is best to ensure that your content speaks to your customers’ interests and is compatible with your chosen channels. You can implement your personalized campaign once you have completed your final checks.

Step 6: Analyze your campaign results

Analyzing personalized advertisement campaign results allows you to evaluate the effectiveness and success of your campaign. Thus, you can improve your missing or faulty points and run your personalized marketing efforts more efficiently. You can also predict results by looking at marketing statistics that include similar experiences.

7 Personalized marketing examples

Considering the customer’s past experiences and expectations is crucial to success. You can run an effective personalized marketing campaign by running ads that include personalized experiences. Below, we have added 7 personalized campaigns from famous brands that are exemplary in their effectiveness and success:

1. Amazon

Personalized marketing example of Amazon (Source: oppizi)

Amazon successfully demonstrates personalized marketing by creating a separate profile for each customer. The recommendations section offers products based on customers’ past purchases, search history, and interests. In addition, it sends notifications and reminder emails to its customers about products they are interested in.

2. Starbucks

Personalized marketing example of Starbucks (Source: Indigo9 Digital)

The Starbucks mobile app offers personalized products and services to its customers through products. The mobile application provides services such as personalized menu suggestions and a loyalty program to its customers. It also provides an area where customers can save their favorite drinks and place their orders in advance.

3. Sephora

Personalized marketing example of Sephora (Source: WWD)

The Sephora mobile application offers personalized products and services to its customers through beauty consultants in stores. It has developed a virtual interface where customers can try its products through its mobile application. Thus, it offers personalized advice to its customers, such as skin types, color tones, or personal preferences.

4. Spotify

Personalized marketing example of Spotify (Source: Spotify)

Spotify’s Wrapped campaign, which we all know and maybe even use, is a successful example of personalized marketing. This campaign gives users a customized summary of the songs or artists they listened to the most throughout the year. The brand designed the summary so users can share it on their social media accounts to encourage engagement.

5. Nike

Personalized marketing example of Nike (Source: Gretel)

The Nike brand has demonstrated one of the successful examples of personalized marketing through its By You campaign. The campaign aims to create a personal experience for users to design their shoes in mobile apps or websites. It creates a particular context for its users, enabling them to connect emotionally with their brand.

6. Netflix

Personalized marketing example of Netflix (Source: Medium)

Netflix is ​​one of the successful examples of personalized marketing. It offers its users recommendations for content that is appropriate to their interests. The recommendation system considers the type of movies or series users prefer. Providing content that suits their preferences improves user experience and increases customer satisfaction.

7. Coca-Cola

Personalized marketing example of Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola conducted a successful personalized marketing with the Share a Coke campaign. They launched a personalized campaign to increase brand awareness and get people talking about the brand. They placed the 250 most popular names on the bottles and encouraged people with these names to share Coca-Cola. So, the brand succeeded in increasing traffic on social media and sales.

Advantages of personalized marketing

Running a personalized marketing campaign benefits your business in many ways. It allows you to deliver content and offers relevant to your target audience’s needs and experiences. It is crucial to the success of your business. Below are some of the benefits of running a personalized marketing campaign:

🔐 Improves customer experience: You can enhance the user experience by creating a personalized marketing campaign considering customer experiences.

🔐 Increase engagement rates: It would be best to develop a personalized marketing campaign that aligns with your target audience’s interests. Targeting areas where they are more likely to engage will increase your engagement.

🔐 Build satisfaction and loyalty: Personalized services and products create an emotional bond between customers and your brand. So you can increase satisfaction and loyalty

🔐 Helps to gain competitive advantage: You can gain a competitive advantage according to your customers' demands, expectations, and past experiences.

💡 You can also use marketing trends to gain an advantage in a constantly growing competitive environment.

🔐 Increases your sales: Offering personalized experiences according to your customers' interests encourages purchasing behavior and increases sales.

Key points to take away

Personalized marketing is a powerful marketing strategy that increases the emotional bond between your customers. By implementing it at the right time and in the right way, you can increase customer loyalty through this marketing site. At the same time, you can gain a competitive advantage and strengthen your sales.

Now that you know everything about running a personalized marketing campaign, you can create one yourself.

In this article, we define personalized marketing and the correct times to use it. We also explain 6 steps for effectively adapting personalized marketing in your business. Then, we include successful 7 examples of personalization in digital marketing. Finally, you can see the advantages of personalized marketing.