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Many companies are eager to begin personalizing content on websites, email newsletters, digital marketing channels and more. But before you jump into campaign creation and management, set yourself up for success by following a few simple guidelines:
1. Anticipate Time Needed
Personalization is not something to check off a to do list. It’s an ongoing process that requires input and time from content creators, designers, developers and more. From introducing new creative to evaluating and optimizing campaigns — personalization requires a certain level of commitment and dedicated resources. That in mind, it’s important to make sure the benefits of personalization — and your strategy to achieve success — are understood at all levels of your organization from the start.
2. Audit Content
The basis of any good personalization campaign is stellar, engaging content. You must have enough content on your website and across other digital channels to support your personalization efforts. Before implementing a personalization campaign, audit your site to find gaps in content and create a plan to augment where necessary.
3. Create Content Rules
When developing new content, set rules to guide your editorial strategy (take a peek at this piece about Competition Free Content for inspiration). The rules should extend into the technical areas of your site as well — make sure you clearly define how each article will be tagged and organized within your CMS, and never over-tag your articles with too many topics. A clear delineation will help you find and serve the most relevant content to users with different interests, from different markets and more.
4. Set Goals
Set clear goals for your personalization program. It’s important to identify who you want to target, why you want to target them and what you want them to do after they see your personalized content. Create a list of your most important target audiences and the actions you ideally want them to take on your website (or via other digital channels). Then, decide what KPIs you’ll track to indicate success. Personalization campaigns are built to connect an audience to content that will inspire a desired action — and that action must be measurable.
5. Don’t Over-Personalize
When creating a personalization plan, don’t over-personalize your website, especially based on a single attribute about a site visitor or brand fan. For example, if someone is interested in family travel or outdoor adventures, you should strategically personalize a few elements on a page or articles on the site to reflect that interest. Do not replace entire pages or sections of the site — in doing so, you prevent exploration outside that singular defined interest and cut visitors off from other content in which they may be interested.
Are you considering implementing personalization into your digital marketing strategy? We’d love to help! Give us a call.