The advertising message is more and more personalized today. However, there is nothing more effective than individualized marketing, that is, one that is intended for one person only. However, can every company afford it? We check.
What is personalized marketing?
In short it is about communication strategythat will be tailored to the needs of one specific recipient. Individualization may concern:
- content,
- forms,
- time
- frequency,
- style of messages.
Most customers like it when they receive a tailor-made product. From the beginning of business history, techniques such as remembering a contractor's name, purchase history or details about their personal situation have been used. The only risk is related to the incompetent use of the collected data, e.g. contact at the wrong time or with too high intensity. It is also always worth informing the client about how his data is used. And of course not to share them with other entities.
As is easy to guess Individualized marketing works bestwhen you keep an eye on large sales worth many thousands or millions. Then it is worth looking for methods to reach a particular contractor. For smaller transactions, this approach may simply not pay off - you will spend more on marketing individualized than you earn on it per customer.
Individualized marketing and mass marketing
When it comes to reaching your customers, there are several main types of marketing:
- mass,
- differential,
- guided,
- personalized marketing.
Do you want to reach your customers more effectively?
Find out what works best.
In mass marketing the idea is to reach all potential customers who are treated equally. An example of such a strategy is the operation of a company that sends out leaflets to the mailboxes of all Poles.
Diverse marketing still focuses on reaching as many customers as possible, but divides them into groups. Each of these groups has a slightly different marketing position, but the brand does not differentiate which of them is more important than the others. On the website of telephone operators you can find offers for everyone (business, children, teenagers, parents, etc.).
Targeted Marketing is that each target audience receives its own marketing mix. For example, other Coca-Cola campaigns are targeting teens at YouTubeand others to their parents at the time of the airing of their favorite series, but still strives to make everyone drink the drink.
Finally we have personalized marketingin which a separate message is directed to each client. Customer segmentation can help to determine which campaign will be most effective. Then it is worth distinguishing methods of targeting them and positioning the brand in their eyes. Individualized marketing is not associated with threats related to other forms of marketing, where a message addressed to one group may discourage representatives of another.
When is it worth using individualized marketing?
Individualized marketing is the strategy most often used in B2B marketing or in the luxury goods segment. In the first case, it is worth making efforts to ensure that the customer feels good and becomes connected with the brand. This is especially important if the company's profits are based on several contractors. Here, modern techniques of personalized marketing are intertwined with those known for decades, such as tickets to a performance of a favorite artist or athlete, gift baskets, etc. However, this strategy can also be applied to individual customers.
If you are constantly verifying customer relations and you measure consumer lifetime value, the well-known marketing truth has probably caught your eye. Well, even 80 percent. turnover usually comes from 20 percent. most trusted customers. They can really love your brand, have their own reasons why they need more products than others, or they just have a wallet thick enough to afford regular, expensive purchases. You should take particular care of such clients. A famous example is the Net-a-Porter clothing store. 3 percent the best customers are responsible there for 40 percent. sales. No wonder that they can count on special privileges, such as free returns immediately and individual on-line consultancy. Considering that some customers leave there several hundred thousand dollars a year, it is not surprising that they receive from the brand from time to time, for example, expensive scented candles or cosmetics. This is how effective it looks relationship marketing.
About a generation Millennials and the younger generation Z are called "unicorns". Each of them feels special and wants to be treated that way. Individualized marketing with confidence will be so it was gaining in importance. Especially since such techniques are becoming cheaper and cheaper. Formerly based on expensive market research, today they often refer to the simplest online analytical tools or data from forms. Many marketers already today uses personalization methods, such as automatic mailings, in which the name of the addressee is supplemented by the system, and recommendations are selected based on previous purchases. The store's dashboard may look different depending on the taste of the person who is currently shopping.
Personalization versus individualization?
Personalization of the marketing message consists in adapting it to the needs of a specific group of recipients. For this purpose, instruments such as big data or data from social media are used. They are anonymous, which means that you learn about the preferences or habits of the group as such, and not about every member of that group.
In turn, individualized marketing is a message for a specific recipient. Here, too, you can use the same tools, but in addition, you will need other data to really get to this person. If you want to use this strategy in B2B marketing and you need help, be sure to let us know.