Welcome my fellow eCommerce Entrepreneurs! My name is Matt Edmundson and this show is for those of us Kurious About eCommerce and who want to know how to get better at digital business.

 

As wonderful and convenient the world of eCommerce is, it is impersonal.

 

eCommerce personalisation is critical for online success. By giving consumers a personalised customer experience you can massively improve conversion rates and customer retention.

 

In today's show we look at three key ways that you can personalise your customer journey to enhance customer experience, engagement and loyalty.

 

1. Website personalisation

 

The aim is to understand the visitor as quickly as possible through their browsing patterns. The more you can anticipate their needs the faster you can begin to give them recommendations.

 

One way to do this is to segment your products by categories. This makes it easier for customers (first time and repeat) to browse and quickly find what they are in interested in. It also helps you gain a better understanding of what the customer wants so that you can begin to offer them relevant content.

 

For example, if a visitor on my site is looking at fountain pens, I am going to start making assumptions and show them fountain pen accessories or best selling fountain pens or blog articles about these pens. I am not going to show them ball-point pens. 

 

Another way to quickly understand your customers is to encourage them to create user profiles/accounts on the website. This helps you to build a complete picture of the customer so that you are in a better position to create and offer tailored content and promotional offers. 

 

Show customers personalised pages based on their anticipated needs/wants by creating categories like Favorites, wish lists, browsing, purchasing. The more tailored the content, the higher the conversion. 

 

2. Email personalisation

 

For effective and personalised email marketing you need to think about your customers and take their shopping habits into account before you can offer them specific content and relevant promotional offers.

 

And guess what?

 

Email open rates go up. Click throughs go up. Sales go up.

 

Segment your list of subscribers and use email sequences. Give your customers relevant content watch the conversion rate go up.  

 

Format your emails with a catchy and tailored subject line to immediately capture the attention of the customer and draw them in. Use the recipient's first name and always be personable and empathetic to start to build trust and create loyalty.

 

Email personalisation, particularly through sequences, are a great way to help engage your customers to increase conversion and to create repeat business. 

 

3. Social media personalisation

 

Remarketing pixels (most often through Facebook) are super targeted and a very specific. They help keep products and services on your customers radar long after they have left your site and moved onto their social media platforms. 

 

But social media personalisation is not just about targeted and specific marketing - it is also engagement. It offers a human connection with your brand in a personable and less formal tone. It creates opportunity for you to better understand your customers  - follow them back, get involved in the conversations by responding to their content and let them know they matter to you. 

 

For example, someone comes to my site that hasn't been before and leaves without creating a profile. The FB pixel fires and I can add them to a custom audience through automated software. For me, I would put them in the fountain pen audience. Then I would target them with on-ramp content, such as a video on how to write beautifully with a fountain pen and another on top ten mistakes beginners make with a fountain pen and so on. I would then see which content they interact with. The more they interact with my on-ramp content the more I get to understand them and the more personal the experience I can create.

 

In essence, the more you can understand the customer and what they want, the more you can personalise their experience and the greater the impact on your conversion rates. 

 

If you have any questions or ideas, we'd love to hear them!

 

Links