– How subscriber behaviour data can be used to target and personalize your customer messaging

‍You may not realize it, but you may be sitting on a goldmine!

Your CRM data, along with behavioural data, when sorted into segmented, targeted lists can enable you to strategically connect with the right customers, with the right message, at the right time, and when done correctly, can return amazing results.

The better you are at segmenting your content and reaching your recipients, the higher your engagement and conversion rates will be. Our data shows that marketers can achieve a substantial increase in customer conversions using the segmentation technique: > 10%-25%.

Using behavioural data to enhance your strategy is an efficient way to reach your targets and improve your performance.

Sound like a good idea? Follow these 4 simple steps and you will be reaping the rewards.

Step 1:  First you need data

Tag your content and start sending your communications

At the beginning, you may have no behavioural data or the data that you have may not be easy to manage. The key to collecting good behavioural data is to mark your content with “Tags” that are actionable and relevant to your business. For our example, we will use 3 category tags.  There is really no limit to the number of tags that you can use to express your products or service offerings.

Example:  a pet supplies retailer sells Bird, Dog, and Cat products.  Let’s also assume for this example, that we do not have any personal data to determine what kind of pets the customers have. We also do not know if they have more than one kind of pet. Our category tags will be “Bird”, “Dog” and “Cat”.

We will add the appropriate category “Tags” to the relevant actionable content. For example, a link or image in our message is linked to Cat products.  It would be tagged with the “Cat” category. Dog product links and images will be tagged as “Dog”. With the tagging of links complete, we start sending our communications. Messages can include regular campaigns, automated journeys and transactional messages. We just make sure that all of our links are tagged.

Every time a recipient interacts with our messages or clicks on content, the tagged data will be collected and stored. The frequency and engagement levels of the messages will determine the size and quality of the data set.

Step 2:  Analyze recipient behaviour and build personas

At this point in our example, we will have accumulated sufficient data needed to determine our personas.  For our example we will be assigning the following personas:

● Bird owners

● Cat owners

● Dog owners

● Multiple pet owners

By looking at the data from sent messages (interactions, clicks) a pattern will emerge and depending on how clear the patterns are, we will start to see the target personas emerge.

Step 3: Create new target segments

Once your personas are clearly identifiable in the data, you will determine segments and create targeted and relevant content for each segment. With these segments identified, we can tailor our messaging:

·  Create highly targeted communications exclusively for each persona (ie. Specific messaging and content for Cat Owners, Specific messaging for Dog Owners, etc)

·  Create messages that sort content and prioritize the message based on persona data (ie. have the Bird products on top of the communications received by Bird owners, have Dog products on top of the communications received by Dog owners.  For multiple pet owners, content for Cat, Bird and Dog products.

Step 4:  Send your communications, measure your results, determine what works best

Using your targeted content and segments, continue sending your communications.

You will be able to measure the results of the segmented and targeted messages and the effect of these message on your conversion rates.  By comparing the results with historical data, it will be possible to determine what works best and where to focus your efforts going forward.

To sum it up:

As you enhance your communications processes using this simple approach, you can enrich your personalised content strategy. For example, if our sample vendor is selling pet food and pet accessories, we will be able to improve our content targeting. For example: Dog Owners that 60% of the time interact with Pet food content and Bird owners who 70% of the time interact with Bird Accessory content can be further targeted with personalized content and promotions specific to their interest. Or if a Cat owner suddenly starts, interacting with Dog content, this may signify a change that can drive improved targeting. If they already have data (from a CRM or e-commerce system for example), this approach can be used to further improve your content personalization and targeting.

Q: What happens when you do not have CRM or transactional data?

A: You can use behavioural data to build profiles and target recipients with the right content.

Q: What if you do have existing data, can you do more with behavioural data?

A: Layering behavioural data on top of your existing recipient data can help you identify new opportunities and improve your targeting.

This strategy applies to all types of communications (B2B and B2C) and can be used across multiple digital messaging channels. It is simple to implement and it should be part of your ongoing digital communications programs.  Try it and let us know how it went, we would love to hear from you and learn how you approached this.