Personalization is no longer optional; it’s expected by your audience and a cornerstone of a successful email marketing strategy. But what if you could take personalization to the next level? Hyper-personalization goes beyond simply addressing your subscribers by name and leverages your data to craft emails tailored to individual preferences, behaviors, and interests.

Why Hyper-Personalization

Let’s first take a quick look at some of the basic definitions to make clear the distinction between segmentation and personalization. Segmentation uses a shared trait among a group of contacts whereas Personalization goes a step beyond that and customizes content for each individual. It’s important to know the difference because using both is integral to creating an engaging hyper-personalization plan. For example, focusing on certain segmentation categories will help you build more personalization data points.

So why, you ask, are segmentation and personalization so important? Statistically speaking, segmented average 46% higher open rates, and emails that are segmented, targeted, and personalized generate 58% of all revenue.

And because so much revenue hinges on personalization, this is where the importance of hyper-personalization comes in. The main difference between the two is the level of customization and the use of real-time data. Personalization uses historical customer data to create a tailored experience for customers, while Hyper-Personalization uses real-time data to provide even more customized and contextually relevant experiences. And it’s proven that hyper-personalization is really what our customers and subscribers are looking for, as 83% of customers are willing to share their data for a more personalized experience.

All of this is to say, if you want to take your email program to next level, you need to focus our efforts on hyper-personalization.

• Investigate who your subscribers are and what would we would like them to achieve. Do you want them to make another purchase, return to your site, engage with a piece of content, etc. ?
• What data do you already have in place? How can you leverage that data? How can you acquire more data?
• Set very clear goals
• Test, test, test

Customer Lifecycle Personalization Opportunities

When creating a hyper-personalization strategy, it helps to lay out your customer lifecycle and investigate opportunities for using data you currently have and capturing more usable data. As you acquire new customers, you should immediately take into consideration how you can make their experience as personalized and as welcoming as possible, because we may not have a second chance at a first impression.

Within your customer journey, ask yourself questions like: Are we asking for too much data? Are we not asking for enough data? In which areas of the lifecycle are we gather data that we’re not acting upon? Are there specific areas of the lifecycle in which we can gather or ask for more data? Where are areas we can test?

Lifecycle Programs

Lifecycle programs make relationships stronger, and automation makes our lives easier! The fewer batch sends you have to create, the more time you have to make your campaigns more personalized, segmented, and engaging to your audiences. So, when should we hyper-personalize within these programs?

It’s is actually very simple – at every single stage. And you want to be sure you are personalizing from the beginning. Think about the dynamic content that can be used in your email program, look at your data and the fields that are available to build, and add those to your automation.

• Welcome emails when a subscriber converts
• Abandoned cart emails
• Price drop alerts
• Back in stock emails
• Reminder email for favorited items
• Cross selling similar products, services, or offers

Benefits of Hyper-Personalization

• Improved Relationships

Simply put, hyper-personalization improves your relationships with your customers/subscribers through satisfaction and loyalty. If you know what people want, save them time and send it to them! And if people feel like you understand them, they will trust you more, and are more likely to return.

• Increased Engagement

If you provide content and purchase options based on your audience’s specific behaviors and interests, they are much more likely to engage. In fact, 90% said they are more likely to shop online from groceries stores offering personalized experiences, with 87% following suit for travel platforms and 86% for automobile websites.

• Better Insights

If you know what people want, it will better inform multiple aspects of your business like inventory management, forecasting, and content planning. This information can help to inform your marketing & product development teams as well.

What Data to Collect

Segmentation Data

Smaller, more segmented lists are the key to hyper-personalization. Simply put, people will engage differently depending on who they are. Focus on data points like:

• Demographics (age, gender, location, earnings)
• Purchase History
• Mobile vs Desktop
• Engagement Level

Use segmentation data to send create automated programs like birthday or anniversary emails.

Behavioral Data

Behavioral data gives you insights on how each specific customer or subscriber interacts with your organization, and it is necessary because it goes beyond the standard demographic data. Behavioral data will allow you to provide hyper-personalized content within your emails to spur a higher level of engagement. Collect data points like:

• Online activities (browsing history)
• Website visits
• Product and content use
• Buying habits (purchases made)
• Brand preferences
• Social media interaction

Use behavioral data to craft emails that provide suggestions based on the specific customer’s recent searches, favorites, previously viewed items, and target price ranges.

Psychographic Data

Psychographic data will give you insights on your audience’s values and interests and gives us a deeper understanding of their personality. Take a look at:

• Interests
• Values
• Activities
• Lifestyle
• Attitudes
• Loyalty

Use psychographic data to send targeted emails that provide suggestions for events, song choices, new streaming options, etc. that match your audience’s interests.

How to Get the Data

Ask your customers and subscribers for the data! You can collect this through forms or surveys on your site during the signup process or on your preference centers. You can also use forms within Contests and Interactive Content using Second Street! Second Street allows you to engage your audience through sweepstakes, quizzes, ballots, brackets, and more while also collecting the data you need to drive your email program. Tools such as Google Analytics can help you collect data through website behavior tracking.

And don’t forget that our Upland Audience Development Services can help as well! They will focus on growing both your audiences and useful personalization data to take your email strategy to the next level. Reach out to your CSM for more info!