Summary:

• New-age consumers demand more engaging brand experiences.
• Hyper-personalization facilitates an individualized marketing approach.
• Complying with user data safety standards, hyper-personalization can revolutionize customer-data management.

Not so long ago, deluging customers with as many messages, as frequently as possible (spray-and-pray), was a common practice in marketing. Today, customer acquisition is much more complex. Tech-savvy consumers have raised the bar for brands across the board. They demand highly personalized engagement and frictionless experiences, all delivered whenever, wherever they choose to go.

To achieve this, brands have adopted a complex system of solutions ranging from CRMs to data analytics tools to comprehensive marketing automation systems. Equipped with so much technology, tailoring content for optimum audience experience might seem like a simple undertaking. In practice, there’s a lot more to it than simply installing some extensive software.

Beyond the buzz

This is where marketing’s buzzword of the year—hyper-personalization—comes into the picture. Compared to personalization, hyper-personalization entails a more robust approach to leveraging data, technology, communication, and CX to engage customers. 

• Personalization seeks to build connections with customers in the macro moments. It delivers customized messages to customers based on static and basic attributes such as name and demographic details (e.g., gender).

• Hyper-personalization aims to engage deeply with customers in the micro moments at scale. It delivers real-time customized offers, reminders, and messaging based on dynamic and in-depth attributes (e.g., customer propensities). This can only be done with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence.

Why hyper-personalization?

Brands should adopt hyper-personalization owing to two crucial benefits.

• Individual-level customer interactions: Customers’ needs vary from individual to individual with numerous factors to consider. Therefore, brands must approach them in ultra-personal ways. 

For instance, two shoppers may fit in the same persona group based on basic demographic and transaction details, but there might be differences to their favorite clothing brands and the channels from which they prefer to receive promotional emails. 

Hyper-personalization maps out their separate customer journey and ensures that these two shoppers get two entirely different experiences.

• Personalized experiences: Hyper-personalization helps brands create individualized experiences at scale, thereby increasing efficiency. According to a Deloitte report, hyper-personalization can deliver improved ROI by as much as 80%.

The conundrum: big tech is watching

On the other hand, industry critics might be skeptical of this approach. Getting too personal may cause audiences to feel that their privacy has been invaded, or that they are being scrutinized all the time.

While these sentiments house valid concerns, the truth remains that hyper-personalization does not imply the reckless transgression of all boundaries. Brands are incentivized to take customer compliance seriously, tailor their hyper personalization strategy according to their business models and industries, and be transparent with their customers on data use.

Start your journey today

A winning hyper-personalization strategy starts with data. The more data brands have, the more hyper-personalized their customers’ experiences will be. 

Brands also need to embrace suitable technology to activate their customer data and garner valuable insights from them. One example of such technology is the CDP, which provides a real-time 360° view of the individual customer. 

To conclude, this blog offered perspectives on why hyper-personalization is not just a passing fad, but here to stay as a winning customer engagement strategy.