As the audience of your website grows, it becomes more challenging to publish content that’s relevant to all readers. Content personalization gives marketers the ability to profile each user’s behavior and capture their preferences, allowing you to deliver more relevant content to keep them engaged—and ultimately, to increase conversions. 

But “personalization” can mean different things, depending on the context of what your business is trying to achieve. It’s a strategy, not just a software solution.

One thing’s for sure—to do personalization effectively, you need a robust library of content, with messaging that speaks to different people at different stages of engagement. If this content isn’t present, personalization efforts fall flat. 

But it’s not just about creating more content. The content you create needs to be authentic, human. And to get that content to the right people at the right time, you need democratic content creation and measurement.

Many of our VIP clients are eager to embrace personalization, for good reason. But before diving too far into a personalization strategy, there are a few critical considerations.

Customers expect personalized experiences

Companies who personalize the customer experience have better business outcomes, according to McKinsey. And that’s not surprising. 

We have a relationship with brands, and we want to feel that brands care about us, that they understand our pain, and have a solution for us. We expect brands to know what we want. So we expect to be shown content that’s most relevant to us at any given moment. 

Personalization is a strategy, not software

Of course, it’s tempting to just buy software that will do personalization for us. 

Don’t get us wrong—we’re obviously not anti-technology, far from it. But technology should work for your strategy—not the other way around. 

As such, successful personalization starts with marketers, technologists, and business leaders alike having shared goals, with a firm understanding of how pursuing personalization will affect and benefit each area of the business. 

There are many ways to do personalization, and it all comes down to understanding your business, and how personalization will help your customers. 

User data’s role in content personalization

Insight into users’ profiles, for example, allows specific segments to be targeted with special offers or promotions. 

Ideally, existing marketing software and platforms that help content creators publish content, such as a content management system (CMS) like WordPress VIP, include or can be integrated with a content personalization engine, like the Parse.ly Content API. 

Examples of personalization strategies and tactics

Targeted ads

Companies can use targeted ads to deliver specific marketing messages to users based on their browsing history and demographic data, ensuring that the ads they see are tailored to their interests and behaviors. This method increases the likelihood of engagement by presenting content that’s directly relevant to each user.

Social media targeting

By analyzing user activity and preferences on social media platforms, companies can create highly customized content that resonates with each user’s interests and social interactions. This strategy not only boosts engagement but also enhances the effectiveness of campaigns by reaching the audience in a more personal and impactful way.

Contextual ads

Contextual advertising allows companies to place ads on websites that are relevant to the content being viewed by the user, thereby increasing the chances that the ads will catch the interest of the audience. This relevance-driven approach helps in maintaining user interest and improving click-through rates.

Multilingual content

Companies can cater to a diverse global audience by providing multilingual content, which ensures that users can interact with their services in their preferred language. This not only improves user experience but also broadens the company’s reach and enhances customer satisfaction.

Content and product recommendations

By utilizing algorithms to analyze past behavior and preferences, companies can offer personalized content or product recommendations to each user. This not only makes the browsing experience more relevant and engaging but also increases the likelihood of conversions by suggesting items that users are more likely to be interested in.

Benefits of personalization for consumers and brands

Personalization not only increases brand reach and boosts conversions by delivering targeted content but also enhances the user experience and fortifies brand loyalty. This tailored approach ensures that every interaction is more relevant and more meaningful, deepening consumer relationships. 

Greater reach

Personalization is the key to unlocking your business’s marketing potential. By addressing the specific needs and preferences of various consumer segments, you can effectively cast a wider net. In recognizing the distinct interests of different groups, your company stands to attract a broader audience, thereby expanding its market presence and potential.

Higher conversions

Personalized marketing significantly enhances the likelihood of conversions by presenting content that closely align with individual consumer interests and needs. This targeted approach not only captures attention more effectively but also encourages consumers to take action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service.

Improved user experience

Personalization enhances user experiences by rendering brand interactions more pertinent and compelling. Consumers are drawn to content that aligns with their individual preferences, enriching not only their browsing or shopping endeavors but also streamlining the efficiency of their online engagements.

Brand loyalty

Achieving brand loyalty results from providing personalized experiences. This reflects a brand’s dedication to truly comprehending and meeting the distinct requirements of its customers, thereby nurturing trust and promoting enduring consumer relationships.

Content personalization case studies

Slate uses Parse.ly’s Content API to provide users with semantically related content

Parse.ly customer Slate is a daily magazine offering analysis and commentary about politics, news, business, technology, and culture. In 2014, Slate launched its membership program Slate Plus.

With this launch came a shift in Slate’s strategy to grow their subscriber audience. They realized that the priorities of readers, advertisers, and the editorial team could be aligned with a new goal of fostering intense engagement, instead of reach.

To increase user engaged time, Slate adopted a personalization strategy powered by Parse.ly’s API, which semantically analyzes a story’s content and finds others that cover similar topics. Slate used Parse.ly’s API to create an infinite-scroll reading experience. When a reader reaches the bottom of one story, another relevant story appears. 

OKdo uses Woo on WordPress VIP’s platform to create multilingual content

OKdo is a global technology company focused on single board computing (think Raspberry Pi) and the internet of things (IoT), two of the fastest-growing markets in the technology space.

OKdo uses WooCommerce on WordPress VIP to power their content and commerce in multiple languages and currencies. This gives them a powerful, flexible, and cohesive system that integrates content, projects, products, and accessories.

Thanks to agile content creation and product management, the platform allows OKdo to respond quickly to a changing world. 

When pandemic lockdowns hit in 2020, they launched Kits for Kids, a project hub with a specific set of products targeted at families learning from home. They were able to get this project up and running nearly overnight, tailoring their content for this newly formed audience.

Although the products were heavily discounted, making this more an altruistic endeavor rather than a commercial one, the Kits for Kids launch demonstrated how a brand that deeply understands their customer can give them valuable and personalized content that builds trust and leads to sales.

Xbox Wire leverages Parse.ly’s content analytics to optimize their content production process

By leveraging Parse.ly’s content analytics, Xbox Wire—a Microsoft blog with news and articles about Xbox—was able to move away from vanity metrics like pageviews, to look deeper at the metrics that really matter to their business.

As content teams increase velocity and put more content out into the market, they can deeply understand what is and isn’t working. By using Parse.ly, the team at Xbox Wire tightens the audience feedback loop, seamlessly receiving and implementing feedback from their audience, which results in a highly personalized content program.

They’re able to get more people using the tool, cutting down on time spent in spreadsheets and freeing up the editorial team to create content. Automated reporting means they can send key reports to leadership before even being asked, proactively empowering decision makers with data-driven insights.

When content analytics is democratic, more people can focus on where they’re seeing success and tighten the content creation cycle. In short, analytics has become a healthy organizational habit.

Personalized content is people-first

In today’s digital landscape, where businesses compete for attention in a sea of content, personalization has emerged as a powerful strategy to engage audiences, drive conversions, improve the digital experience, and extend both brand reach and brand loyalty.

Reflecting the importance of marketing personalization, our Content Matters for C-Executives 2024 report cites creating high-quality content and personalization/creating content that caters to the individual needs and preferences of the audience as among the top challenges facing senior leadership this year.

At WordPress VIP, we help clients provide personalized digital experiences on some of the most popular websites in the world. For a detailed look at personalization at the enterprise level, read our whitepaper How to Achieve Personalization with Enterprise WordPress and a developer’s perspective on dynamic content personalization.