Personalization does not have to be complicated. You can take your first steps into personalization by utilizing what your business might already have.
In part 1 we covered the importance of knowing your customers, how you can extend your personalization efforts to emails and making changes to your website. We talked about how you should look at the data you have on your customers and talk to customer facing staff to get a sense of who your customers are.
For the tactics below we’re going to assume that you have segmented some customer data and you have access to your company’s Google Analytics account.
It’s time to get even more personal…
Using your segmentation data for advertising
Now that you have segmented your customer data you have a lot of options for personalized digital marketing campaigns. And it doesn’t just have to be LinkedIN, where most B2B companies push their marketing efforts.
We’ll pick two of the big ones to help get you started, Custom Audiences on Facebook and Customer Match on Google Ads.
Facebook Custom Audiences
A Facebook Custom Audience is an ad targeting tactic that you can use to find your existing audience on Facebook. Using your segmented customer data you can upload a “customer list audience”. You can even do this using segments you may have set up in mailchimp (see part 1). Facebook anonymises that data once it’s uploaded so it’s actually quite straightforward to put the list together.
You can create up to 500 custom audience lists on your account. So using segmented lists for different customer personas can be a very effective ad targeting tactic.
Once you’ve done this you will get access to a very powerful weapon to use in your marketing arsenal, a lookalike audience.
A lookalike audience is a way to target new customers who might be interested in your business because they are very similar to your best existing customers (from your previous customer list audience). The efficacy of lookalike audiences can drop off over time, but if you refresh your data regularly they can be a superb source of new leads.
Facebook has a template to help you upload your first list and it has to be in CSV or TXT format.
Google Ads
Customer Match on Google Ads works in a very similar way to the Facebook customer list audience described above.
Google’s Customer Match functionality lets you use your customer data to reach and engage with customers on Google Search, shopping, Gmail, YouTube and Display. Using the information from your customer data list, Customer Match targets ads to your existing customers and also customers who are similar to them.
Like your Facebook list, your Customer Match list can be uploaded to Google, who will anonymize the data, in the CSV format. You can do this via your Google Ads account.
For the sake of convenience it’s probably best to generate a CSV of the customer data you want to use for both platforms. This can actually also be done through mailchimp too, if you have that set up.
B2B Personalized Ad Actions
- Use CSV files containing customer data for Facebook and Google marketing campaigns
- Utilize “lookalike audiences” on Facebook for better results
- You can use the same lists as your personalized email campaigns, export them from Mailchimp if you have it
Get “chatty”
Live Chat and chat bot functionality is nothing really new. But it is improving very quickly and there are ways your business could use it that would create a unique experience for different customer segments.
For example you could serve your chat bot only to customers that are strategically important to your business. Or serve it to new customers only. Or your chat functionality could appear when certain trigger events occur.
These tactics can all add an extra element to the digital experience you present to your customers.
Chat Actions
- Think about installing a live chat or chat bot client to your site
- Use it for specific customer segments
Allowing for customization
B2B customers now prefer a more self-directed digital experience. So why not let them customize the appearance of your site. If you have customers who log into your site regularly to make purchases, why not let them tailor the appearance of their dashboard or log in area to their liking? Or you can let them set up “shortcuts” for regular processes, to speed things up.
Customization Actions
- Allow “logged in” customers to personalize their experience
- Let them create their own shortcuts for actions they perform regularly
Talk to MAQE
If you need help getting started with B2B personalization, talk to us via [email protected]. We can build a new digital platform for you, improve an existing one and help you improve your personalization tactics.