What Is Content Personalization?

Content personalization is a method of tailoring digital content to an individual reader based on the data a company has gathered on them. Personalizing content enables businesses to speak to a reader in relevant terms and show them content they’d be interested in.

Personalization is everywhere. Netflix recommends videos based on your watch history. Amazon’s homepage shows recently viewed products and ones you might be interested in based on your purchase history. Your social media feeds are curated based on the accounts and topics you interact with.

Companies that personalize their content see the impact. For example, personalized website CTAs have a 202 percent higher conversion rate than standard CTAs, according to HubSpot. And Salesloft found that personalized sales emails lead to double the reply rate.

Personalized content is the path toward more signups, better lead quality, and more revenue. And with a large majority of companies prioritizing it, it’s no longer a nice-to-have but a need-to-have for brands that are going to compete. To make your own customer personas and personalize your content, put the customer data you’re collecting to use to create relevant experiences in every interaction.

Types of content personalization

Personalizing content across every customer touchpoint is a must—not just within common approaches like blog or email marketing efforts. Here are four ways to personalize content to help you connect with your target audiences.

Website content

In a digital landscape where website-centricity is becoming increasingly important to acquire and keep customers, it’s critical ‌to present readers with personalized content when they visit your site.

That may mean creating different messaging on the homepage based on a user’s industry, e.g., ecommerce or media, or where they are in the buyer’s journey, e.g., awareness or consideration.

Retargeting ads

Retargeting ads enhance content personalization and increase ad conversion by using behavioral insights from a user’s online activities to deliver more relevant advertisements.

This strategy not only improves the relevance and timing of ads but also optimizes user engagement and experience across multiple devices.

Personalized email newsletters

To effectively engage subscribers and prevent them from unsubscribing, personalize your email marketing efforts by using customer data to suggest content that’s relevant to each subscriber’s interests, needs and wants, or their professional background, e.g., marketers or developers.

Ideally, that’s based on actions taken by customers on your company’s website, such as reading specific content, viewing pricing information, abandoning a shopping cart, or updating account details.

Why content personalization is important

Content personalization means better business. By using personalized experiences in your content marketing strategy, you can foster relationships with your audience at every stage of the buyer’s funnel.

Acquire more leads

Custom content shows your readers that you understand them and that you can solve their problems. So, you increase your chances of getting them to subscribe, sign up, or take a demo.

For example, if your company provides software that’s useful for multiple industries, customize your homepage to an audience member’s industry.

Increase engagement

Well-crafted content is a waste if the wrong person sees it. Personalized content means you show readers what they’re most likely to engage with.

For example, if your company sells social media software that suits multiple industries, you might personalize your blog’s landing page by surfacing the most engaging content for each industry.

Win more customers

Serving relevant content to your audience means they’re more likely to become customers and refer others.

A potential customer who’s visited your site multiple times and watched a product demo might be served an ad that encourages them to take the next step, like signing up for your free trial.

Improve loyalty

Delivering relevant content to your prospects and customers shows them that you understand them. It shows you’re a trusted partner for their work and increases the likelihood that they’ll stick around.

Say you sell a real estate management product and some of your prospects are residential agents based in Seattle. You can nurture those relationships by sending them an email with your quarterly housing market reports for that city.

Boost sales and revenue

According to McKinsey & Company research, more than three-quarters of consumers are more likely to consider purchasing and repurchasing from brands who personalize their messaging.

For example, a classic personalization approach is serving tailored web ads to visitors after they visit your site but leave without buying, prompting them to return and consider completing a purchase.

How WordPress VIP and Parse.ly can help

In today’s fiercely competitive business landscape, personalized content is a key to acquiring more leads, increasing audience engagement, winning more customers, improving loyalty, and boosting revenue.

Together, WordPress VIP and Parse.ly streamline content personalization by leveraging robust data analytics and tagging systems. For example, the Parse.ly content API makes it easy to add personalized content recommendations to your website, increasing the ROI of every piece of content by feeding your readers more things they want to read.

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