As the holiday season quickly approaches, many online retailers are gearing up for their biggest sales event of the year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And as competition among eCommerce stores heats up, it's more important than ever to find ways to stand out from the pack. One way to do that is through personalization.
There are different types of personalization, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. In this guide, we'll explore the different types of personalization and when to use each one. Then we'll walk through how to incorporate personalization into your email marketing campaign for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
By the end of this guide, you'll have a better understanding of how to use personalization to get more out of your email marketing, and you'll be able to put that knowledge into practice with your own Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns.
What is personalization?
Personalization means using data to create unique experiences for individual customers. It can be as simple as addressing them by name in your email, or it can be much more complex, depending on what information you have about them.
There are different types of personalization, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. In this guide, we'll explore the different types of personalization and when to use each one. Then we'll walk through how to incorporate personalization into your email marketing campaign for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
What are the different types of personalization?
There are three main types of personalization:
- Demographic
- Behavioral
- Location-based
Let's take a closer look at each one.
Demographic personalization
This is a tactic whereby you use information about your customers' age, gender, location, or other demographics to customize their experience.
For example, you might use demographic personalization to show different products to men and women, or to show different products to people in different parts of the country. Doing this can help you better meet the needs of your customers and improve your conversion rate.
However, demographic personalization can also be misleading. For example, just because someone is a man doesn't mean they're only interested in men's products. And just because someone is from the United States doesn't mean they're interested in US-based products.
That's why it's important to use demographic personalization as just one part of your overall strategy. You should also consider other factors, such as behavior and location, when personalizing your customers' experience.
Behavioral personalization
When you use information about your customers' past behavior to customize their experience, you open up quite a few doors for yourself.
For example, you might use behavioral personalization to show different products to customers who have previously purchased from you, or to customers who have abandoned their shopping carts. When you analyze your customers' behavior, you can better understand what they're interested in and offer them products that are more likely to convert.
Let's say that you run a clothing store. Using behavioral personalization, you might show different products to customers who have previously purchased women's clothing than you would show to customers who have only ever purchased men's clothing. Doing this can help you better meet the needs of your customers and improve your conversion rate because you're showing them products that are more likely to be of interest to them.
Behavioral personalization can be very effective, but it's important to use it sparingly. If you overuse behavioral personalization, you run the risk of coming across as creepy or intrusive.
Location-based personalization
When you use information about your customers' current location to customize their experience, you can really cater the message.
For example, you might use location-based personalization to show different products to customers who are in different parts of the country, or to customers who are near one of your brick-and-mortar stores. Doing this can help you better meet the needs of your customers and improve your conversion rate.
However, location-based personalization can also be misleading. For example, just because someone is in the United States doesn't mean they're interested in US-based products. And just because someone is near one of your stores doesn't mean they're interested in your products.
That's why it's important to use location-based personalization as just one part of your overall strategy. You should also consider other factors, such as behavior and demographics, when personalizing your customers' experience.
How to use personalization in your email marketing campaign
Now that you know what personalization is and the different types of personalization, let's walk through how to incorporate it into your email marketing campaign for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
There are two main ways to do this:
- Use demographic personalization to segment your list and send different emails to different segments.
- Use behavioral personalization or location-based personalization to show different products to different customers in the same email.
Let's take a closer look at each one.
Segmenting your list
The first way to incorporate personalization into your email marketing campaign is to segment your list and send different emails to different segments. This is called demographic personalization, and it's a great way to make sure that your emails are relevant to each individual customer.
To do this, you'll need to segment your list based on demographic information like age, gender, location, or other factors.
Then, you'll create different emails for each segment and send them to the appropriate segment.
For example, let's say you have a list of 100,000 people. You could segment that list into three different segments:
- Men aged 18-24
- Women aged 25-34
- Everyone else
Then, you could create three different emails: one for men aged 18-24, one for women aged 25-34, and one for everyone else.
This would ensure that each customer receives an email that's relevant to them, and it would increase the chances that they'll engage with your email. Imagine if you just sent one email to everyone on your list. It's likely that only a small portion of people would find it relevant, and even fewer would engage with it.
But by segmenting your list and sending different emails to different segments, you can dramatically increase the relevance of your email and the likelihood that people will engage with it.
Using behavioral or location-based personalization
The second way to incorporate personalization into your email marketing campaign is to use behavioral or location-based personalization to show different products to different customers in the same email.
This is a great way to increase the relevance of your emails and the likelihood that customers will purchase from you.
To do this, you'll need to use information about your customers' past behavior or their current location to show them different products in the same email.
For example, let's say you're running a Black Friday sale on your website. You could use behavioral personalization to show different products to customers who have previously purchased from you, or to customers who have abandoned their shopping carts.
You could also use location-based personalization to show different products to customers who are in different parts of the country, or to customers who are near one of your brick-and-mortar stores.
This would ensure that each customer sees products that are relevant to them, and it would increase the chances that they'll purchase from you. While this does require more work upfront, it's well worth it when you consider the increased sales that you'll see as a result.
Tips for making this process more efficient
If you're manually segmenting your list and creating different email templates for each customer, personalization can be a time-consuming process. Fortunately, there are a few ways to make it more efficient.
The first tip is to use automation tools like Automizely to automate the process of segmenting your list and sending different emails to different segments, especially if you run your eCommerce store on Shopify.
Automizely is a great tool because it allows you to segment your list automatically based on factors like location, purchase history, and more. It also allows you to create different email templates for each segment and send them out automatically. This saves you a lot of time and effort, and it ensures that your emails are always relevant to each customer.
Another tip is to use dynamic content to automatically insert different products into your emails based on each customer's individual preferences.
This is a great way to increase the relevance of your emails without having to manually segment your list or create different email templates for each customer. To do this, you'll need to use a tool like Automizely, which has dynamic content capabilities built-in.
Finally, make sure to test different personalization strategies and see what works best for your business. There's no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to personalization, so it's important to experiment and find what works best for you.
Using personalization for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Now that you know how to use personalization in your email marketing campaign, let's look at how you can use it for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
If you're running a Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale on your website, you can use personalization to increase the relevance of your emails and the likelihood that customers will purchase from you.
Here are a few examples of how you can use personalization for Black Friday and Cyber Monday:
Let's imagine that you are a sporting goods retailer and you're running a Black Friday sale on your website. You could use behavioral personalization to show different products to customers who have previously purchased from you, or to customers who have abandoned their shopping carts.
For example, if a customer has previously purchased a soccer ball from you, you could show them products like soccer cleats or a soccer goal in your Black Friday email. Or, if a customer has abandoned their shopping cart on your website, you could show them the items that they were interested in and offer them a discount to encourage them to complete their purchase.
You could also use location-based personalization to show different products to customers who are in different parts of the country, or customers who are near one of your brick-and-mortar stores.
For example, if you have a customer who is in California, you could show them products that are popular in California, such as sunscreen or sunglasses. Or, if you have a customer who is near one of your stores in New York, you could show them products that are popular in New York, such as snow boots or a winter coat.
Finally, you could use demographic personalization to show different products to customers who are in different age groups or genders.
For example, if you have a customer who is a woman, you could show them products that are popular with women, such as jewelry or handbags. Or, if you have a customer who is a man, you could show them products that are popular with men, such as watches or wallets.
By using personalization in your Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails, you can increase the relevance of your emails and the likelihood that customers will purchase from you.
It's time to get personal
Personalization is no longer a nice-to-have. It's a necessity if you want to stay competitive in today's market.
By segmenting your list and sending different emails to different segments, you can dramatically increase the relevance of your email and the likelihood that customers will engage with it. Customers want to feel like you understand them, and personalization is the best way to show them that you care.
Use automation tools like Automizely to segment your list and send different emails to different segments automatically. This will save you a lot of time and effort, and it will ensure that your emails are always relevant to each customer.
And remember, the more relevant your email is to each individual customer, the more likely they are to purchase from you. So don't be afraid to get personal!
To get started with personalization, experiment with different strategies and see what works best for your business. Automizely Marketing provides a powerful CRM system that supports AI-powered segmentation. And in this BFCM season, offers a great free trial, so you can try it out and see how it works for you without any risk.
