Personalization or Scalability? Let’s Do Both

At best, personalization at scale sounds like an oxymoron. At worst, it sounds like one of those mottos that CMOs throw around but that doesn’t translate to reality. By most definitions, personalized content can’t scale from the individual customer to thousands of customers.

Personalization is only possible if you’ve got the marketing resources to build each of those individual pieces of content, right? Not to mention all the research it takes to tailor content for an individual.

I’m here to tell you that you can scale personalized content. But today’s marketing personalization doesn’t mean custom pieces of content for each individual buyer. Instead,

• Personalized content is content that speaks to many similarly grouped individuals. In your email system, to personalize means that you dynamically add names, job titles, or links to emails (for better or worse). You can download a list of this customer information from your CRM software and upload it directly to your email client.
• Individualized content is content that’s written for an individual. Content written for a particular person or customer is individualized, and unless you’re working on closing the deal or retaining a current customer, you shouldn’t write individualized content.

You can personalize content at scale. Individualized content doesn’t scale, but it’s not meant to. You use individualized content when you close a deal. It’s a higher-value opportunity, so you can spend more time and energy on this communication.

In order to scale personalization, you have to focus on writing for smaller groups of highly targeted audiences, put in a little front-end research, and use software to manage your campaigns.

Segmenting audiences: The key to personalized content at scale.

In order to scale personalized content, you’re going to have to decide on a target market definition (TMD) and then build segments within your lists that match those TMDs. Segmenting your customers means you create content geared towards smaller audiences with similar interests or needs. Your content will be personalized to those similar interest groups, rather than personalized to the individual customer.

Want to target a small group of customers? Build tightly focused content.

Pay close attention to building content geared for middle-tier spenders — although these aren’t your highest or most consistent customers, marketing towards them is essential, as they can easily leave you to go with a competitor instead.

Figure out what groups live in this middle tier and write content that shows how your product meets their needs. Who are they, where do they work, and why do they purchase your product? What is it about your product that solves their problems? This content is what you will broadcast widely to scale your marketing.

Why you can scale when talking to a target account 

When you speak to the customer’s need, you can broadcast your message to a wider audience, and you’ll likely gain customers who look different than your TMD but who also happen to have similar needs.

The folks that you target will hear your message, and so will others. This is a good thing! You want to attract the ideal customer, but you also want other types of customers to hear your message because they can help fill out your marketing funnel.

Broadcast your personalized content as wide as possible to ensure potential customers hear you. Then save individualized content for the high earners.

Most consumer products skip over individualized content because it’s not worth the profit margin. B2B organizations that rely on large contracts with high revenue per customer margins need to spend the time to build individualized content like emails, presentations, and even account-based marketing tactics like intent analysis. Take the time to price out your marketing and sales campaigns, and then compare the return on investment (ROI) for each.

• How much revenue does a single newsletter bring in?
• How much revenue does a social media post or campaign earn?
• Do you earn more revenue on a highly focused video or a well-researched blog post?
• How much time does it take to produce individualized, well-researched emails vs. 1 blog post, and how much revenue does each result in?

In today’s go-get-’em world, it’s easy to assume you have to do all the things all the time. Write every single email from scratch or provide deeply individualized content to each of your customers. Taking this kind of approach will drive you crazy, leave you exhausted, and means tons of customers never hear your message. Widen your net a bit with scaled personalized content, and give yourself a break!

Tamara Scott is Research and Content Manager for TechnologyAdvice.com. She writes about the intersection of technology, business, and education in Nashville, TN.