What do you usually serve when guests come over at your place? Do you stick to the usual coffee + cookies for every guest? Or do you ask about what they would like to have and serve them according to their likes?

I am sure many of us usually follow the first option as it is less of a hassle. But, following the latter method will make your guest feel welcomed and satisfied.

Imagine serving coffee to a person who just began his decaf journey or insisting on having nut cookies to someone who is allergic to peanuts.  Bummer, right?

On the other hand, serving them according to their preference will make them feel welcomed. They would love to visit your place more often.

The same is the case with your website design. If you add personalized features to it, you will instantly build a connection with your audience. Once visitors feel that their preferences are valued by you, they will become your loyal customers.

1. Impact of Personalization on User Experience

Using audience data paves the way for the development of a personalized website that caters to each visitor. It acts as a catalyst for lead conversion.

The strategy of personalization is successfully winning the hearts of customers. According to Evergage, 81% of customers want brands to get to know them. They prefer a brand to understand when to approach them and when not to.

But, the question is: why should a business worry about improving user experience and add personalized aspects to its website design? The answer is summed up by MarketingProfs, which states that businesses that personalize web experiences see an average 19% increase in sales.

Let’s unfold what personalized features in a website can enhance the user experience and improve conversions. Below, we have explained a structured approach that you can use to deploy these customized features.

2. Begin with Collecting Data and Segmenting Personas

Addressing a prospective customer by name in the email is just scratching the surface of personalization. It is much more than that if you have the audience’s data.

A basic formula of “identify then prioritize” works well when it comes to personalization. According to Instapage, 57% of customers are okay with sharing their information with a website if it gives them any benefit. However, they wish the information to be used responsibly.

You can acquire four types of data to have an insight into who visits your website.

• Behavioral data (based on visitor interactions)
• Demographic data (based on locations and IP addresses)
• Firmographic data (based on the industry to which the visitor belongs)
• Contextual data (based on sources of a person’s visit)

Based on these analytics, you can categorize various persona, which makes the process of personalization easier. It will also tell you what persona deserves the personalized treatment most. As you progress, you will get to know whether a tailored web experience is benefitting your audience or not.

3. Relevant Headlines for each Visitor

Once you have segmented the personas, focus on creating exceptional homepage headlines for each of them. A headline that appeals to a specific customer may not be convincing enough for another one.

A headline that talks directly to high-value leads are a marketing strategy that makes conversion a lot easier as well as quick. Useproof swears that showing adaptive headlines was a successful strategy for them.

Here is their generic headline:

While here is a targeted headline for e-commerce visitors:

4. Compatible hero image for different Customer Persona

The hero image on your website’s homepage is the first impression that needs to be tailored for diverse visitors. A relevant hero image welcomes the visitors and allows them an enticing user experience.

You can either use animations, static images, or a dynamic list of pictures according to the geographical location or firmographics of the visitors.

5. Smart CTAs

Customized call-to-actions, also known as smart CTAs perform way better than regular, one-size-fits-all CTAs. Almost 202% better as reported by the Hubspot.

Refer to the graph below to see the conversion performance:

It is recommended to plan out several CTA’s to target each persona. For example, if you are a software service provider, you can show a “basic plan CTA” for smaller companies and an “advanced plan CTA” to larger businesses.

6. Personalized display Of Products

Amazon is an e-commerce giant, yet it takes personalization very seriously. It studies the buying behavior and past viewed items of the customer to show them the relevant products. According to OneSpot, Amazon’s 35% of purchases are a result of a personalized product recommendation.

Personalized shopping cart recommendations influenced 92% of shoppers online, as reported by business2community. Another feature that you can add is “frequently bought together items” suggestions to increase sales.

7. Tailored Testimonials

Testimonials of clients conforming to each persona should be displayed on the homepage. It impacts the buyer’s decision more than anything else. The reason for the impact is that testimonials build trust in a prospective customer.

Tailoring the testimonial as per the interest of customers will be highly convincing for them. A genius way to save the users’ time and enhance their experience is to merge the testimonials and product display.

For instance, let’s assume a design company that specializes in creating affordable logo designs for brands. On their homepage, they can post the logos they have designed for famous brands. They will work as testimonials and simultaneously give the audience an insight into their work.

Show logos of brands relevant to each visitor so that it convinces them that you provide the best services. A retail client would be interested in retail brand logos, whereas a construction client would wish to see logos of other construction companies.

8. Highlight specific Product/ Features relevant to various locations and Timezones

Showing the warmest puffer jacket to an audience where summer has arrived in full swing is not a good idea. When you customize the content, keeping in mind the diverse location and time zones of customers, you win big time in terms of relevancy.

Facebook leaves me baffled at times on how accurately relevant my newsfeed is. Though the science behind this is strategies based on algorithms and real-time data collection, it is still a very apt example of personalization done right.

9. “Abandoned Cart” strategies for E-COMMERCE Websites

If you are an e-commerce brand, your priority is to close as many sales as possible. Abandoned carts by visitors can be annoying, but you can play the personalization card on such visitors that could increase the chances of a closed deal. 

At first, when you notice that a customer has left without buying anything from his cart, save the cart. Whenever the customer returns, put the cart on display as a popup that reminds them of the products they left.

To make the experience even more appealing, offer a lucrative deal/discount on adding more items to the cart. It will count as a “re-targeting strategy.” As a final CTA, show an exit popup to the customer asking for their email address or offer them an additional coupon.

Exit-intent popups show up when the customer is moving his cursor, intending to leave the webpage. If you can personalize it after analyzing your consumer data, you would retain many of your buyers.

According to a study conducted by Infosys, 31% of consumers say they wish their shopping experience were far more personalized than it currently is.

10. Create Personalized Notification Bars

Notification bars are a feature that your audience can see throughout their visit on your website. It can be used efficiently to optimize the user experience. Notification bars can display relevant product announcements, the countdown to an event, upcoming sales, or discounts, etc.

These banners may seem unimportant, but they can add a lot of value to the user experience if personalized. Many brands even come up with coupon codes for customers of different demographics as a marketing strategy.

Adaptive content in local languages Of Visitors

Language barriers impact the customers’ buying decisions and hinder their user experience. Personalized website content that talks to the customers in their native language can help you to connect with them on a personal level.

While you are researching your personas, a lot of content ideas would pop up in your mind that could hook your visitors. You can make sure that your website features content in the language of high-valued personas to help them feel much more welcomed and valued.

The Lokalise blog says that as much as 75% of customers will purchase from a brand if their website and product information is available in their native language. So, a little research into what language your native customers speak can pay huge dividends in terms of increased sales.

Final Word

Evergage reports that 88% of U.S. marketers reported seeing measurable improvements due to personalization, with more than half of them reporting a lift greater than 10%. Along with this, 63% experienced an increase in conversion rates.

When you build your website on the foundation of personalization, it helps the visitors enjoy an optimized and welcoming experience. You can also utilize other forms of customization, such as email, ad, or mobile personalization, to increase your sales.

All the statistics and features stated above give a clear understanding of what web personalization is and why it matters so much to the marketers nowadays. Directing attention towards this strategy can improve the user experience. Consequently, it will help any business achieve its goals quickly.

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