Personalization marketing is one of the benefits of living in the digital age. Email subject lines that know your name, and recommended shoes based on one Google search — the options are endless. So, how do you take that kind of detail and bring it to the in-store experience?
The answer isn’t as simple as it seems. There are a few ways to bring personalized marketing to life for retail, but each strategy takes time and consideration.
Luckily, we’ll outline the best ways to make your customers feel seen online and offline.
What is Personalization Marketing?
Before we go any further, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.
Personalization marketing uses consumer data to create a one-to-one marketing plan, directly speaking to that consumer using their name, what they care about, and other personal information.
These marketing strategies aren’t just to make consumers feel seen; they’re known to boost revenue! According to a 2020 Salesforce study, 97% of marketers witnessed a rise in business outcomes due to personalization.
Personalization works across the board to improve many different touch points of the consumer’s experience with your brand. Improvements include:
- Better revenue
- More responsive marketing
- Improved data collection
- Higher return on investment
Why Does Personalization Work?
There are clear paths to success when it comes to your personalized marketing strategy. But why exactly does it work? For that, we need to dive into consumer psychology.
McKinsey did a 2021 report on the effectiveness of personalization done right and the negative impact on a brand when a marketing strategy misses the mark.
Their two key takeaways:
- 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. And 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.
- Personalization drives performance and better customer outcomes. Companies that grow faster drive 40% more revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts.
Consumers expect personalization on digital platforms like Amazon to be the norm, and they have a new ‘bare minimum’ expectation from brands they shop with. If you beat that threshold, the rewards are endless. However, failing to meet it is detrimental.
Types of Personalized Marketing Strategies
Good personalized marketing experiences aren’t a one-size-fits-all scenario. It takes care planning, budgeting, and execution to get the results you’re looking for. Here are some ways popular brands we’ve worked with (and some we’d love to meet) have brought their personalized content to life.
Brand and In-Store Activations
Brand and In-store activations are popular marketing tactics that brands use to engage customers directly at a physical location. These events are typically designed to boost brand awareness, create excitement around a new product launch, and ultimately, boost sales.
In-store activations can come in many different forms and sizes. For example, they involve interactive product demonstrations, sampling opportunities, celebrity appearances, contests, and giveaways.
Real Life Example: JUST Egg
JUST Egg used a combination of festival and grocery store activations to learn more about their consumers and get feedback on their egg alternative product. They used AnyRoad’s experiential marketing platform to collect vital information from visitors, such as feedback and demographic details.
This resulted in the collection of 30,000 high-value data points for JUST Egg. AnyRoad surfaced critical insights from the data collected about trends in consumers’ gender, age, and more to power the CPG brand’s strategy.
Real Life Example: Nike
Nike has taken personalization to the next level by allowing customers to configure their clothes and shoes. The company recently launched a 3D sneaker customization platform that enables shoppers to generate real-time, shareable snapshots of finished footwear.
Brand and In-Store Consultations
Consultations are a service offered by brands in-store or online to help personalize the shopping experience and get to know their customers better. This is a great example of a value exchange, where consumers can feel comfortable getting a service in exchange for their information.
Real Life Example: Sephora
The company's mobile app encourages customers to book in-store makeovers and beauty consultations. The app can find a store, check if an item is in stock, and book a reservation. The app also allows customers to try products virtually and receive recommendations based on their personal beauty traits.
Real-Life Example: Fleetwood Paints
Fleetwood Paints is a leading paint manufacturer and distributor in the UK and Ireland, sold through 250 retail partners. Part of their personalized marketing efforts is offering paint consultations online and in stores where their paint is sold.
Fleetwood Paints’ online and in-person approach with AnyRoad transformed their 30-minute booking process to less than two minutes, saving their marketing team 50 hours per month on average.
With the new analytics unlocked by AnyRoad, Fleetwood Paints learned that over 60% of their customers prefer consultation bookings in the morning. When Fleetwood adjusted their consultation schedules, they saw a 40% increase in online bookings.
The Big Picture
As technology advances, consumers will appreciate the one-on-one interaction that makes personalized marketing important. It’s a deeply effective way to gather more data, increase revenue, and drive customer loyalty.
In-store personalization is the way of the future, and all the big brands are doing it. See more advancements in in-store tech in our deep dive into AI!
