What do your favorite mobile applications, emails, and jerseys of your beloved team all have in common? If your guess is “personalized” then you’re absolutely correct! Personalization is the process of tailoring pertinent, individualized communication between two parties that is proposed to improve the experience of the beneficiary.
Companies personalize their websites to provide an individualized web experience for their customers. To create an exclusive web experience for each of their customers, companies utilize data that they have explicit rights to collect. Once the data has been collected, they adapt the customer experience on mobile applications, emails, and websites through geolocation, purchase history, behavior on the site, and much more.
What Is Website Personalization?- Types & Benefits
Many people often think that both personalization and customization are identical, but in reality, they are not. Customization is managed by the user, whereas personalization is governed by the company. Dashboards, email filters, and chat boxes are some of the types of customization processes while companies execute the personalization process by using customer data to exhibit a significant web experience.
What is Website Personalization?
Website Personalization is the skill of presenting a unique, individualized custom-tailored website experience for every visitor who lands on your website. Rather than presenting a single, one-of-a-kind experience, a personalized website exhibits a unique experience through personalization. The personalization process is carried out based on the visitor’s purchase history, geographical location, or past behavior on the website. The main objective is to make a page that fulfills manifold business principles such as better customer approval, increased site visits, lower bounce rate, longer visit intervals, improved conversion rates, and enhanced brand value.
Previously, web personalized happened to be a tricky and prolonged process, if not unsustainable. Now, these days, with the advancement of highly developed data collection apparatus and the desire to concentrate on building tailored user experiences, benefitting from website personalization is not that difficult. We have the prospect of personalizing a website dynamically through advertisements and emails. The ultimatum is to never, by no means, make the visitor feel like they are experiencing a generic and dull event.
Since its inception, personalization has been mostly known in the retail market only. But now, comprehending the significance of it, particularly in terms of generating revenues and providing a shopping experience, more and more online brands have started surveying this field. Website personalization has had healthy growth over the last few years.
Types of Website Personalization
Website Personalization can be classified into two main types:
A. Based on data collecting techniques
B. Based on customer experience
Website personalization can be described as an umbrella that encompasses a wide range of activities based on data collection techniques. This section discusses website personalization based on the method of gathering data.
A. Based on data collecting techniques
1. Explicit Website Personalization
Explicit personalization occurs when personalization is executed on a website as per the requirements prepared by the visitors themselves. In this mode, visitors choose their preferences—like location, age, gender, etc. The website saves these preferences in cookies and, rather than displaying the whole list of offerings, they display only those items that are relevant to the visitor.
2. Implicit Website Personalization
Implicit personalization classically depends on a large number of variables and metadata to tailor the communication between the two organizations and proposes a personalized web experience. It can be classified into two sub-categories: behavior-based personalization and contextual personalization.
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Website Personalization Based on Behavior
Based on the relationship between the browsing history of a customer and the content of a website, behavior-based website personalization is executed.
Examples: Amazon, Twitter, New York Times, Spotify, etc.
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Contextual Personalization
This type of personalization personalizes the visitor’s experiences on the basis of some specific context. The website suggests activities based on the current location, timing of the day, weather report, etc.
Example: Google.
B. Based on customer experience
Based on customer experience, website personalization can be further classified into two types: Interruptive experiences and Seamless experiences.
1. Interruptive experiences
Interrupted experiences are described as experiences that a visitor doesn’t anticipate from a website, and they aren’t considered an integral part of the website experience. They play a huge role in inducing visitors to take prompt action and helping drive more traffic to your site. The biggest perk about interruptive experiences is that they can be employed on-demand, whenever required, and they are not required to be shown to every visitor by default.
Examples: pop-ups, info bars, and push notifications.
2. Consistent experiences
In contrast to interruptive experiences, seamless experiences are an essential part of the web experience that you offer to your visitors. Visitors, sort of, expect you to offer them exclusive experiences whenever they visit your site. The biggest advantage of seamless experiences is that they provide an effortless alteration between personalized and non-personalized segments of the website.
Why is Website Personalization important?
We’re living in an era where companies are contending every single minute to seize the attention of visitors. In this circumstance, web personalization comes as a blessing in disguise. You can lure your visitors to stay longer on your website if you can provide a word of honor to them, saying that you value their welfare and priorities. Alongside providing relevant content and helping them to take the preferred action,
Most people desire to have a digital experience that imitates the classic level of personalization they receive in offline stores. Many companies have adapted website personalization through their social media networks, news feeds, and online shopping recommendations. Actually, the expectations of consumers have gone up so high that companies that desire to develop their products are altering their strategy to tackle this requirement directly. Whenever you visit a website, they monitor you very closely. They jot down all your activities while browsing, the kinds of products that attract you, the time you spend while shopping for a particular product and many more. Using all these insights, they further personalize your visiting experience and induce you to purchase more products from their site.
How does Website Personalization benefit you?
Now that website personalization is on the rise, let’s see how you can use it to increase your sales, digital marketing, and brand awareness. The following are some of the benefits of personalizing a website.
1. Improved Calls to Action
A call-to-action (CTA) is a broad approach that can be implemented to carry forward your buying process. An excellent CTA can persuade people to read an article or news report, conduct a survey, set up a free trial, or watch a demo video. Researchers suggest that the performance of personalized CTAs is 202% better than their standard counterparts.
2. Relevant Recommendations
Visitors often get annoyed by seeing irrelevant recommendations on a website. Using website personalization can help you collect information about the visitors, and by doing so, you can guarantee that the recommendations that you show are always new and relevant. It will also help you increase brand loyalty.
3. High Landing Page Conversion
There are certain things on a web page, such as landing pages, that beg for personalization. Companies and e-commerce should pay heed to land pages, as an appropriately optimized landing page can generate a huge sum of revenue. Around 63% of the visitors on a website are influenced by tailored product references on home and landing pages.
4. Increased Customer Loyalty
The more you offer high-quality services to your customers, the more customer loyalty will be yours. When you employ the correct tools to make your website experience friendly, hospitable, and one-on-one, you will enhance customer loyalty. The report suggests that 79% of the visitors consider brands that pay heed to them. So, personalization is very critical if you are operating a loyalty program.
5. Improved customer understanding
Another benefit of website personalization is that it helps you learn more about your customers. You can competently filter your customers into personalized channels. For example, CTAs can persuade visitors to inform you what commerce they are associated with, the extent of their company, and other key aspects. You can segment your customers into different versions of the website based on what they tell you.
6. Increased Site Time
Needless to say, when someone is content with their preference, they’ll tend to stay around your site for a longer time. If you’re willing to reduce your bounce rate and improve time on site, then you must personalize the experience of visitors to your site. You must give visitors some valid reason to explore the site and evaluate your service.
7. Increased Brand Adherence
A personalized website paves the way for better conversion rates, happier customers, and improved brand loyalty. According to studies, about 15% of loyal customers are responsible for 55% to 70% of total sales. As a result, it is always advised to do everything in your power to keep your customers feeling valued.
How to personalize your website?
When it comes to personalizing your website, you can’t just do it randomly without having the feedback of the consumer. Not only should you need their feedback, but you also need to have your own strategies as well. The more information you collect about your visitors, the more you can generate personalized content and add them to your website. In no time, the conversation rate will increase, and sales will begin to flow. To personalize a website, you need to follow the below steps carefully.
- Gather relevant visitor information from the right sources.
The information can include a person’s name, age, gender, telephone number, email address, current location, work experience, company name, designation, and so on.
- With the data you collect from your visitors, you can create a profile for them as a customer.
- Set your personalization goals
Increasing conversations, reducing bounce rates, improving ROI, improving up-sales, increasing customer retention, and constraining repeat purchases are some types of personalization goals.
- Develop a strategy for personalizing your website
A few examples of website personalization strategies include Homepage Personalization, Home Page Personalization, Product Page Personalization, Landing Pages, Navigation/Menu Personalization, Blog Post Personalization, and CTA (Call to Action) Personalization.]
- Develop strategies for personalization and implement them
- Make a success rate calculation
What are the best practices of Website Personalization?
Throughout this section, you’ll learn about the best practices for personalizing your website.
1. Decision-making in real-time
It is regarded as one of the best approaches to website personalization because it makes use of the visitor’s information while they are active on the website. It will help you to provide the right type of note or suggest the right items or services before they sign off.
2. Never go above and beyond your recommendations.
It is true that personalization encourages the thought of presenting the most relevant items to the customer, but at times, it can in turn be repulsive. They might get annoyed by seeing the same product or content recommendation repeatedly. Don’t restrict them. Instead, allow them to browse around your site beyond what you propose to them.
3. Proper segmentation is necessary.
Remember that not all channels or pages on your website operate uniformly in every sort of circumstance. Hence, it is very crucial to know about your target audience and explore where to convey the right message or demonstrate relevant recommendations to the customers. You just can’t display some pastry options to customers when they’re meticulously looking for home-grown chocolates on your website.
4. Examine your theory before putting it into action.
The campaigns that you conduct to personalize your website are just a theory that must be estimated and checked before implementation. Because it is not required that some personalization approaches that have worked well for one organization also work well for all other organizations.
5. Monitor your analytics on a regular basis.
Just like conducting an A/B test on your website, you should also keep a record of the website’s personalization efforts via qualitative and quantitative diagnostic tools. It will help you to see where your personalized site elements are standing exactly and recommend what measures you should take to further their potential.
6. Attach a privacy declaration
To personalize your website, you require various data about the visitor. The type of data can be as generic as their profile name, age, gender, email ID, contact number, current location, browsing history, and so on. But breaching someone’s privacy may not be a pleasant thought. Unless you evidently affirm the terms of information utilized in the privacy policy part of the website along with a declaration that information is collected only to benefit the visitor and that it will not be distorted in any possible way, Such a declaration or statement provides some sort of comfort regarding your privacy policy and builds trust in your brand.
Conclusion
Every website should be highly personalized. The better the website personalization experience, the better you will be able to carry out the wishes of your online visitors and assist them in achieving their goals. This will further help you to attain an improved customer retention rate and brand value.
With every passing year, marketing policies are getting better, more competent, and more effective. Likewise, competition among companies is also increasing. The invasion of advertising and promotion has crowded the market space and made it difficult to grasp client attention.
In that kind of environment, it’s essential for you to provide a personalized experience to your visitors where they will feel appreciated. There are numerous website personalization tools on the market that will assist in meeting the remuneration of website personalization.
Once you’re finished collecting data from the user, be it from your website or via any third-party service, you should properly use it to propose an experience that makes the customer feel valued and appreciated. If you succeed in making your customers happy, then your revenues will also rise automatically. That’s a true win-win situation for both parties.
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Simran works as a technical writer. The graduate in MS Computer Science from the well known CS hub, aka Silicon Valley, is also an editor of the website. She enjoys writing about any tech topic, including programming, algorithms, cloud, data science, and AI. Traveling, sketching, and gardening are the hobbies that interest her.
