According to Forrester research, your potential customers will find three pieces of content about your company and its offerings for every one piece that your marketing department can deliver. That ratio is important as it relates to the content creation process, as you have a finite volume of material that you can consistently publish to your website, blog or social media profile. Therefore, your goal is to develop content that’s highly customized, relevant and personal to your prospects. Content personalization is what drives engagement, so it’s important to know how you make it happen and boost your content marketing ROI.

What is “personalization” in content marketing?

In the world of inbound marketing, “personalization” is the creation of custom-tailored, relevant content for your target audience. You can personalize your email messaging, your paid ads, videos, blogs and pretty much every type of content, but the point is to present an experience that speaks directly to a potential customer. One of the most effective uses of personalization tools in content is through your website, through two approaches.

1. Customizing the content you deliver or recommend to visitors; or,
2. Personalizing the components of different impressions, i.e., displaying one version to a certain group of visitors – and other to a different group.

How can I use content recommendation to personalize content?

Content recommendation is a pretty amazing web personalization tool. These solutions operate by pushing specific content formats and topics a visitor is most likely to engage with, based on the profile characteristics the software gathers from the person. The technology can detect such features as:

• Company details, including size of the company, revenue and industry;
• Behaviors and interests, such as buying history, browsing history and search terms; and,
• Location.

Once a content recommendation tool has gathered this information, it will present a content asset – such as one call to action for a healthcare CEO and another for a CFO of a software company. The solution then monitors reactions to determine which impression garners a valuable response. The system then “learns” what works and can replicate that experience for the next visitor.

What material can I work with using personalization tools?

In a sense, the sky’s the limit for combining different content attributes. You can serve up a different offer, image or text to visitors falling into certain categories, creating a unique experience for each person who lands on your site. Change logos, templates and calls to action to better respond to a visitor’s interests. You can switch the experience simply by transitioning these elements, which enable you to personalize the encounter with each potential customer. It’s possible to offer a whitepaper download to those at the top of the sales funnel and a “free trial” to visitors further along in their buyer’s journey. The customization possibilities are almost limitless – much like the personalities of your target audience.

Personalization solutions are valuable tools for marketers seeking to make a visitor’s experience on a web page unique and memorable. You want to know your investment in content marketing is being used wisely, and this type of technology helps you increase ROI with more targeted message to your audience.