4 ways to personalize your marketing messaging and boost engagement

In today’s market, customers expect personalization.

According to one report, 66% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations – but say that they’re generally treated like numbers instead. This is a huge wasted opportunity, as research shows that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences.

Marketers are quick to understand the value of personalization: one report revealed that a whopping 99% of marketers say that personalization advances their customer relationships. Many (85%) believe that personalization should be a bigger priority in their organizations right now, with 89% wanting to use personalization because it improves the customer experience.

It’s clear that personalization has a key role to play across the entire customer lifecycle. But for marketing teams, getting it right can not only impress your customers and turn them into long-term advocates – it can also give your messaging the boost it needs to drive better results.

So how can you create more personalized and engaging marketing campaigns? Here are four simple ways to get started.

1. Use first-party customer data to enrich your messaging

When it comes to personalization, you need to have the right foundations. Having a customer communications platform that allows you to gather data directly from customers and act on it by triggering relevant, personalized messaging is the key to unlocking so many of the opportunities that follow.

What is first-party data? First-party data is any information that your customers, prospects, and visitors give you directly. It means that you’re not relying on cookies or tracking – you’re talking directly to your customers to build strong, dynamic customer profiles that evolve as they do.

“Every conversation and interaction helps you to grow your customer knowledge – and your relationship”

It’s simple, but effective. (And it’s even simpler and more effective with the right tool to make it effortless.) And if you’re using one unified platform for all of  your customer communications across marketing, sales, and support, every conversation and interaction helps you to grow your customer knowledge – and your relationship.

With all of this rich, contextual data, you can get deeper insights and trigger different messages or events based on different factors, such as business type, location, conversation topic, or actions taken.

Start by using things like your customer’s first name and company to make the message feel personal and engaging. From there, you can drill down with custom attributes and events that allow you to personalize the messages even more, so you can speak to their unique experience so far.

Learn how to harness the power of customer data

2. Integrate your tech stack to create cohesive customer journeys

In addition to all the rich information you already have in your customer communications platform, you can make your messaging even more powerful by integrating it with the other tools in your tech stack.

With Intercom, you can seamlessly sync the marketing tools you love – like HubSpot, Clearbit, and Zoom – allowing you to create cohesive, consistent customer experiences every step of the way. Not only is this better for your customers, it also wins back more time for your team, so they don’t have to waste time jumping between tools or copying and pasting customer information between apps.

And by integrating essential analytics tools like Google Analytics, you can also track and measure how your hard work is performing – and impacting the business’s bottom line.

Create the ultimate marketing technology stack

3. Reach people in the right channel, at the right moment

The best way to engage people is by sending the right message, at the right time, in the right place. With targeted messages, you can reach people exactly when it’s most effective: when they’re already thinking about your business.

“By reaching out when people are most ready to engage – that is, already on your site or in your product – you can make the most of every opportunity”

Whether that’s on your website, on mobile, or in-app, Intercom lets you send personalized, engaging messages based on specific customer segments, actions, or behavior. By reaching out when people are most ready to engage – that is, already on your site or in your product – you can make the most of every opportunity, ensuring that there are no missed connections. Instead, every conversation helps to drive growth.

And not only can you personalize your messages based on specific customer data, but you can customize the look and feel of your messages with images, videos, apps, and friendly emoji (👋) to make sure they’re always on-brand and optimized for the job at hand.

Start sending targeted, contextual messages

4. Build personalized campaigns across multiple channels

Personalization isn’t just about one great message; it’s about creating an ongoing flow. But with so many moving parts to manage, creating an engaging customer journey can be tricky – especially when you factor in multiple channels and diverse customer needs.

Using a visual campaign builder like Series, you can create tailored, targeted campaigns with just a few clicks. Series are triggered based on specific customer behaviors and actions, so (with the help of all of the information and knowledge you’ve gleaned above) you can be sure you’re delivering the right message at the right time.

The best part? There’s no code needed. This means that campaigns are simple, quick, and intuitive to set up, empowering your marketing team to own the campaign from beginning to end. We love them for creating engaging onboarding flows, crafting compelling announcements, and re-engaging inactive users who might be at risk of churning.

What’s more, with reporting and split testing, you can measure your campaigns’ success in market so you can be responsive and quickly optimize your campaigns for better results.

Meet the multichannel visual campaign builder

Engage your customers with personalized messaging

With the right foundations in place, you can leverage first-party data to create personalized marketing messaging and campaigns that are relevant, timely, and targeted. Ready to grow your customer relationships with marketing that matters? Here’s how Intercom can help.