One look at the industry of personalized products and it’s easy to see—we love things that feel customized to us. From mugs with our initials to shampoo and skincare that’s tailored to our preferences and needs, consumers in 2020 expect personalized options to be available nearly everywhere they shop.
The same is true for consumers’ experiences online. Personalization has been a growing trend for years, though we’ve progressed far beyond email subject lines and direct mail campaigns.
In our recent webinar on content trends, our Senior Director of Content Strategy Stephanie Mansueto shed some light on how personalization continues to grow, especially when it comes to interactive content.
In the presentation, Stephanie noted that 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized.
With the wealth of content that’s presented to customers on a daily basis—from a wide range of companies and services—this is no surprise. We all want content that is personally relevant to us, our pain points, and the struggles we’re currently experiencing in our industry or role.
This is the content that will make an impact on your audience, and it’s the content that you need to continually evaluate and tailor to their needs as they move throughout their journey.
When you incorporate interactive content into your marketing strategy, a world of personalization options opens up. Let’s get into three ways you can use different types of interactive content and its features to create highly relevant and impactful content for your audience.
1. Segment Interactive eBooks by Job Title or Other Attributes
In this Ion Interactive customer example created by Progress, the interactive eBook begins with a question that will customize the experience for the visitor.
Here, you’ll see that once the visitor selects their role from the three options, they also respond with their pain points. The eBook then becomes personalized to fit their specific interests and needs, showing them eBook chapters that are relevant to their responses.
The data captured from those segmentation questions was also pushed to a marketing automation platform, building a lead profile for future content suggestions.
2. Provide Personalized Solutions with a Calculator or Assessment
In an interactive solution finder, assessment, or calculator, you can create targeted questions that will unearth your visitor’s pain points, or find out what topics, products, or services they are currently interested in.
In this Ion example, created by Korn Ferry, an interactive assessment poses questions to the user, ultimately providing them with personalized insights on salary. By asking questions about the visitor’s company size, the industry they are in, and their location, Korn Ferry is able to tailor the results page.
Feedback from this assessment helped Korn Ferry tailor future marketing efforts, based on the responses they received.
3. Use A/B Testing and Adjust Accordingly
The beauty of interactive content lies in A/B testing. Ion makes it easy to create two versions of an experience, giving you the opportunity to test different questions in an assessment, different placements or requirements of a form, or even something as simple as a different headline.
For personalization, this data becomes a gold mine. As with the above examples, the data collected provides a foundation for information: who is our audience? What are they looking for? What will be relevant to them?
By testing—and making adjustments to future iterations of your content—you’ll decrease that feeling of frustration mentioned earlier. You’ll be able to provide customers with the content that will make an impact in their day-to-day struggles, making their lives at work easier, and their connection with your brand more valuable.
Renewing Focus on Personalization
Looking for more tips on personalization? Watch our webinar to get more insights on personalization, data-driven content, and more.
