Content personalization: Why it's important and how to do it
Nia Gyant
GatherContent Contributor, Writer
A core goal of content marketing is to present the right content to the right people at the right time. Present the wrong content at the wrong time or the wrong content to the wrong people and you’re in trouble.
Marketers have to nail all three of those elements: the content, the audience, and the timing. And, yet, one of the top ways to do that—content personalization—is often dismissed.
It’s about time we clarify what content personalization is and involves, and how to do it well. We’ll even look at a few examples of personalization done right to drive home how valuable it can be.
What is content personalization?
Content personalization is the process of serving different content to different segments of or individuals in your target audience. With what goal? Delivering more relevant, enjoyable, and memorable experiences for them. The more your content is tailored to each viewer, the more persuasive it has the potential to be.
But let me be clear about tailoring content to your viewer. Your viewer is more than the static buyer persona in that Google Doc you haven’t looked at in months. The most effective content personalization considers where your viewer is right now. That includes their approximate stage in the buyer’s journey, recent engagement, purchases, and so on.
Why is content personalization important?
Gartner’s research found that 71% of B2C customers and 86% of B2B customers expect personalized interactions. Now, I’ll be the first to say that this study was on customers and customer service expectations. Not necessarily on the expectations of potential leads, leads, and prospects. But this finding is still telling. Why?
All content marketing should be in service of its audience—existing customers or not. And how does that benefit marketers who delight their audiences with personalized, dynamic content early on and post-purchase? They’ll have a leg up on those who wait until post-purchase and those who don’t personalize at all.
Now is the time to incorporate personalization into your content marketing strategy. Especially as audiences develop higher expectations.
Industries such as healthcare are leading the charge as far as customer-centricity. And one study found that 62% of customers’ expectations for an industry are influenced by experiences with others. So what if you’re not investing in content personalization but others in or outside of your industry are? It could come back to bite you.
Considering revisiting your strategy to include personalization? Check out the free Content Strategy Roadmap—template and checklist included!
The different types of content personalization
There are many different types of information you can personalize content based on. Some common types include:
Demographic personalization, which uses info like age range and gender to anticipate the needs of visitors
Location-based personalization—a subcategory of demographic personalization that delivers content based on where users are
Behavioral personalization, which uses existing behavioral data to predict future actions or needs
Interest-based personalization—a subcategory of behavioral personalization that delivers content on certain topics based on patterns in audience interaction
Examples of audience data you can use for personalization
You can also tailor content based on referral sources, devices, opt-ins, and more.
How content personalization works
The general process goes like this:
Identify key segments of your audience and what those segments need. Want to deliver hard-hitting content that addresses needs and concerns of consideration-stage prospects? Or, instead of going broad, send interest-specific emails to subscribers? Decide who you’ll be personalizing for and what type of personalization would be best for them.
Outline goals. Define the results you’d like to see from your personalization efforts. For example, a higher clickthrough rate, more shares to increase reach, more sales, and so on.
Check your tech. Hoping to use a certain CMS, email marketing software or other tool for personalization? Confirm that it supports the type of personalization you’ve decided on.
Set up the technology. Outline how you’ll gather the data you need. Will it be through a form, your CRM, an analytics tool, or another source? And how will the data get from its source to the platform you’re using for personalization? If possible, use integrations or standalone tools to simplify setup, and keep data synced and accurate.
Create or map content. Create content for each audience segment or map existing content to each segment. From here, you can begin testing audience response to your content. A/B testing in particular will reveal what aspects of your content personalization strategy are or aren‘t working.
With this process, you can personalize everything from website content and emails to SMS and push notifications.
5 common content personalization myths that need busting
So far, we’ve laid out the facts about personalization. But let’s talk about a handful of the many misunderstandings on this topic.
Myth #1: Personalization is creepy
True, personally-identifiable information is often used to deliver personalized experiences. But personalization is only creepy if you make it so. It all comes down to your intent and how you view this tactic. There’s a stark difference between:
🚫 “We’ve stalked you to figure out how to get you to engage with us and/or buy our stuff.”
✅ “We noticed X, so we thought Y might be interesting or helpful to you.”
The second approach puts the interests of the customer first. And it’s also a lot more subtle and respectful of the audience’s feelings about their personal info.
In fact, you may not need to explain the data behind a personalized experience at all! You can simply deliver the right content to the right people at the right time. Without them feeling like they’ve been spied on.
Myth #2: Name personalization is enough
Some think the extent of personalization is including {{ subscriber.first_name }} in their emails. That can be helpful for fostering more of a relationship with your audience, but is it enough? No.
66% of people expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. Yet, an equal percentage feel they’re treated like numbers. They can see through low-effort, mass personalization tactics like {{ subscriber.first_name }}, and they want more. They want personalization that actually addresses their needs and wants. This leads us to myth #3—you can’t personalize effectively without a ton of customer data.
Myth #3: Personalization requires a ton of data
Jeremy Clifford, Founder and CEO of Router CTRL, busted this myth.
“It’s true that you need data to understand each user's interests and preferences. But you don't necessarily need to know their name or other personally identifiable information. You can get a lot of useful information from cookies, IP addresses, and other sources of anonymous data.”
Non-personal info such as device, time of day, and location can help you serve relevant content.
Myth #4: You can only personalize for one person
Personalization isn't just individual. You can also personalize content to a portion of your audience. Daniela Andreevska, VP of Content at Mashvisor explained.
"Marketers usually target general keywords which have a high search volume in an attempt to generate as much traffic as possible. Search volume is a key metric in content marketing. But personalized keywords—whether focusing on a location, profession, education, or any other characteristic—also have great potential. They may not grab the attention of a lot of readers. But the audience will be looking for the exact content provided on the page. This can generate qualified leads and thus increase conversion rates."
Myth #5: Personalization always puts user wants first
Marcus Astin, Chief Operating Officer of Pala Leather, gave a great example of personalization that’s not 100% dictated by user wants. “Take Kindle Direct Publishing, for example. Books are ranked by popularity. So, even if you've never heard of an author before, there's still hope as long as their book falls under your preferences and interests categories.”
Of course, you shouldn’t ignore user wants altogether. But you can sometimes offer them something they need or may like but don’t yet know they want. That can make the difference between a "good" user experience and a standout experience that earns you loyal supporters.
The 4 best content personalization examples
Let’s take a look at some brands that are nailing content personalization.
Google
You’d struggle to name a company that’s doing personalization on the scale Google does. It has billions of users all over the globe. Sure, it would be easier to deliver the same results to everyone but Google doesn’t. Case in point: location-based results.
To illustrate, say you're in New York and type "urgent care" into Google. The search engine knows it’d be pointless to show you a list of urgent care facilities from around the US. Chances are, you're looking for an urgent care near you. So, Google uses location data to only show facilities nearby.
This same principle applies to your company or organization, no matter the industry. Personalization involves pinpointing what matters to your audience in the moment and excluding what doesn’t.
Aveda
The Aveda Hair Quiz is more than a fun way to engage site visitors. It’s also a way to gather data that facilitates the delivery of relevant, dynamic content. The copy even states this outright as a benefit of and reason for taking the quiz.
The landing page for the hair quiz Aveda uses to personalize content
What’s the benefit of this approach? Positioning personalization as a benefit and allowing people to opt-in gives them the power. It keeps them in control of their personal info. It keeps your efforts from feeling slimy, while also helping you serve impactful content.
Amazon
Jeremy Clifford, mentioned earlier, gave a great ecommerce example. On Amazon's ‘You might also like’ feature, Jeremy said, "This algorithm takes into account not only your recent purchases but also what people with similar interests have bought.” It even learns from items you’ve viewed but haven’t bought to give relevant product recommendations.
Netflix and Spotify use similar methods. Both recommend movies, songs, and shows based on your viewing and listening history.
Drift
Alex Milosh, Head of Organic Growth at Atera, commented:
"My favorite example of content personalization is from Drift. One of the things they do well is personalize the chat experience for each individual visitor.
For example, if you visit their site while logged into LinkedIn, they'll automatically pull in your LinkedIn profile photo and name to use in the chat. This may seem like a small thing, but it's a really effective way to create a more personal connection with each visitor.."
Plus, as Aveda does, Drift lets users control the content they see. Its chatbot gives users several paths and Drift-related topics to choose from. Then, the bot shows content based on their selections.
Personalized content delivered by Drift’s chatbot
This is a cross between customization (done by the user) and personalization (done for the user). But I’d be shocked if Drift didn’t also use selection patterns from chatbot users to further personalize the chat experience. Or even to inform its larger content creation, distribution, and segmentation strategy.
Put together your personalization strategy
Content personalization isn’t just a nice-to-have to remove friction between you and your audience. It's become an expectation for B2C and B2B audiences alike. So the need to embrace it—beyond filling names into a generic message—is inescapable.
Start thinking of ways to incorporate personalization into your content strategy. Speaking of…GatherContent gives away content strategy insights every week via its newsletter. For more expert advice on topics like this, sign up!
Marketers have to nail all three of those elements: the content, the audience, and the timing. And, yet, one of the top ways to do that—content personalization—is often dismissed.
It’s about time we clarify what content personalization is and involves, and how to do it well. We’ll even look at a few examples of personalization done right to drive home how valuable it can be.
What is content personalization?
Content personalization is the process of serving different content to different segments of or individuals in your target audience. With what goal? Delivering more relevant, enjoyable, and memorable experiences for them. The more your content is tailored to each viewer, the more persuasive it has the potential to be.
But let me be clear about tailoring content to your viewer. Your viewer is more than the static buyer persona in that Google Doc you haven’t looked at in months. The most effective content personalization considers where your viewer is right now. That includes their approximate stage in the buyer’s journey, recent engagement, purchases, and so on.
Why is content personalization important?
Gartner’s research found that 71% of B2C customers and 86% of B2B customers expect personalized interactions. Now, I’ll be the first to say that this study was on customers and customer service expectations. Not necessarily on the expectations of potential leads, leads, and prospects. But this finding is still telling. Why?
All content marketing should be in service of its audience—existing customers or not. And how does that benefit marketers who delight their audiences with personalized, dynamic content early on and post-purchase? They’ll have a leg up on those who wait until post-purchase and those who don’t personalize at all.
Now is the time to incorporate personalization into your content marketing strategy. Especially as audiences develop higher expectations.
Industries such as healthcare are leading the charge as far as customer-centricity. And one study found that 62% of customers’ expectations for an industry are influenced by experiences with others. So what if you’re not investing in content personalization but others in or outside of your industry are? It could come back to bite you.
Considering revisiting your strategy to include personalization? Check out the free Content Strategy Roadmap—template and checklist included!
The different types of content personalization
There are many different types of information you can personalize content based on. Some common types include:
Demographic personalization, which uses info like age range and gender to anticipate the needs of visitors
Location-based personalization—a subcategory of demographic personalization that delivers content based on where users are
Behavioral personalization, which uses existing behavioral data to predict future actions or needs
Interest-based personalization—a subcategory of behavioral personalization that delivers content on certain topics based on patterns in audience interaction
Examples of audience data you can use for personalization
You can also tailor content based on referral sources, devices, opt-ins, and more.
How content personalization works
The general process goes like this:
Identify key segments of your audience and what those segments need. Want to deliver hard-hitting content that addresses needs and concerns of consideration-stage prospects? Or, instead of going broad, send interest-specific emails to subscribers? Decide who you’ll be personalizing for and what type of personalization would be best for them.
Outline goals. Define the results you’d like to see from your personalization efforts. For example, a higher clickthrough rate, more shares to increase reach, more sales, and so on.
Check your tech. Hoping to use a certain CMS, email marketing software or other tool for personalization? Confirm that it supports the type of personalization you’ve decided on.
Set up the technology. Outline how you’ll gather the data you need. Will it be through a form, your CRM, an analytics tool, or another source? And how will the data get from its source to the platform you’re using for personalization? If possible, use integrations or standalone tools to simplify setup, and keep data synced and accurate.
Create or map content. Create content for each audience segment or map existing content to each segment. From here, you can begin testing audience response to your content. A/B testing in particular will reveal what aspects of your content personalization strategy are or aren‘t working.
With this process, you can personalize everything from website content and emails to SMS and push notifications.
5 common content personalization myths that need busting
So far, we’ve laid out the facts about personalization. But let’s talk about a handful of the many misunderstandings on this topic.
Myth #1: Personalization is creepy
True, personally-identifiable information is often used to deliver personalized experiences. But personalization is only creepy if you make it so. It all comes down to your intent and how you view this tactic. There’s a stark difference between:
🚫 “We’ve stalked you to figure out how to get you to engage with us and/or buy our stuff.”
✅ “We noticed X, so we thought Y might be interesting or helpful to you.”
The second approach puts the interests of the customer first. And it’s also a lot more subtle and respectful of the audience’s feelings about their personal info.
In fact, you may not need to explain the data behind a personalized experience at all! You can simply deliver the right content to the right people at the right time. Without them feeling like they’ve been spied on.
Myth #2: Name personalization is enough
Some think the extent of personalization is including {{ subscriber.first_name }} in their emails. That can be helpful for fostering more of a relationship with your audience, but is it enough? No.
66% of people expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. Yet, an equal percentage feel they’re treated like numbers. They can see through low-effort, mass personalization tactics like {{ subscriber.first_name }}, and they want more. They want personalization that actually addresses their needs and wants. This leads us to myth #3—you can’t personalize effectively without a ton of customer data.
Myth #3: Personalization requires a ton of data
Jeremy Clifford, Founder and CEO of Router CTRL, busted this myth.
“It’s true that you need data to understand each user's interests and preferences. But you don't necessarily need to know their name or other personally identifiable information. You can get a lot of useful information from cookies, IP addresses, and other sources of anonymous data.”
Non-personal info such as device, time of day, and location can help you serve relevant content.
Myth #4: You can only personalize for one person
Personalization isn't just individual. You can also personalize content to a portion of your audience. Daniela Andreevska, VP of Content at Mashvisor explained.
"Marketers usually target general keywords which have a high search volume in an attempt to generate as much traffic as possible. Search volume is a key metric in content marketing. But personalized keywords—whether focusing on a location, profession, education, or any other characteristic—also have great potential. They may not grab the attention of a lot of readers. But the audience will be looking for the exact content provided on the page. This can generate qualified leads and thus increase conversion rates."
Myth #5: Personalization always puts user wants first
Marcus Astin, Chief Operating Officer of Pala Leather, gave a great example of personalization that’s not 100% dictated by user wants. “Take Kindle Direct Publishing, for example. Books are ranked by popularity. So, even if you've never heard of an author before, there's still hope as long as their book falls under your preferences and interests categories.”
Of course, you shouldn’t ignore user wants altogether. But you can sometimes offer them something they need or may like but don’t yet know they want. That can make the difference between a "good" user experience and a standout experience that earns you loyal supporters.
The 4 best content personalization examples
Let’s take a look at some brands that are nailing content personalization.
Google
You’d struggle to name a company that’s doing personalization on the scale Google does. It has billions of users all over the globe. Sure, it would be easier to deliver the same results to everyone but Google doesn’t. Case in point: location-based results.
To illustrate, say you're in New York and type "urgent care" into Google. The search engine knows it’d be pointless to show you a list of urgent care facilities from around the US. Chances are, you're looking for an urgent care near you. So, Google uses location data to only show facilities nearby.
This same principle applies to your company or organization, no matter the industry. Personalization involves pinpointing what matters to your audience in the moment and excluding what doesn’t.
Aveda
The Aveda Hair Quiz is more than a fun way to engage site visitors. It’s also a way to gather data that facilitates the delivery of relevant, dynamic content. The copy even states this outright as a benefit of and reason for taking the quiz.
The landing page for the hair quiz Aveda uses to personalize content
What’s the benefit of this approach? Positioning personalization as a benefit and allowing people to opt-in gives them the power. It keeps them in control of their personal info. It keeps your efforts from feeling slimy, while also helping you serve impactful content.
Amazon
Jeremy Clifford, mentioned earlier, gave a great ecommerce example. On Amazon's ‘You might also like’ feature, Jeremy said, "This algorithm takes into account not only your recent purchases but also what people with similar interests have bought.” It even learns from items you’ve viewed but haven’t bought to give relevant product recommendations.
Netflix and Spotify use similar methods. Both recommend movies, songs, and shows based on your viewing and listening history.
Drift
Alex Milosh, Head of Organic Growth at Atera, commented:
"My favorite example of content personalization is from Drift. One of the things they do well is personalize the chat experience for each individual visitor.
For example, if you visit their site while logged into LinkedIn, they'll automatically pull in your LinkedIn profile photo and name to use in the chat. This may seem like a small thing, but it's a really effective way to create a more personal connection with each visitor.."
Plus, as Aveda does, Drift lets users control the content they see. Its chatbot gives users several paths and Drift-related topics to choose from. Then, the bot shows content based on their selections.
Personalized content delivered by Drift’s chatbot
This is a cross between customization (done by the user) and personalization (done for the user). But I’d be shocked if Drift didn’t also use selection patterns from chatbot users to further personalize the chat experience. Or even to inform its larger content creation, distribution, and segmentation strategy.
Put together your personalization strategy
Content personalization isn’t just a nice-to-have to remove friction between you and your audience. It's become an expectation for B2C and B2B audiences alike. So the need to embrace it—beyond filling names into a generic message—is inescapable.
Start thinking of ways to incorporate personalization into your content strategy. Speaking of…GatherContent gives away content strategy insights every week via its newsletter. For more expert advice on topics like this, sign up!
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