Why Data-Powered Personalized Content Drives Success

March 2019

by Erica Garza

Personalized content is changing the world of marketing rapidly. With 75 percent of consumers agreeing that content customized around their interests influences their decisions to purchase, it’s crucial for marketers like myself to know who customers are and what makes them tick (and click). This informs how I should design a marketing strategy and craft messages that spark curiosity and interest. The best way to uncover the desires and demographics of customers? Data.

How Data Informs Content

Data helps marketers and publishers create content that is relevant to the consumer. Studies show that a lack of relevance leads to an 83 percent decrease in engagement. Researchers can easily collect customer data through research tools that people want to engage with. Curated quizzes, surveys, polls and contests are just a few ways Insticator helps marketers gain invaluable insights about their customers. This data makes it easier to create a personalized experience that will boost both customer engagement and loyalty. Data also informs predictive analytics, which allows marketers to target the right customers at the right time with the right content.

Why Customers Want to Engage

If you have any reservations about collecting data from your customers, don’t fret. Studies show that 83 percent of consumers say they are willing to share their personal information if it means enabling a personalized experience. They simply expect businesses to be transparent about how they are going to use their information. Customers also like being heard, which is why Insticator’s polls, quizzes and surveys are so popular. As a marketer and blogger, I’ve learned that having a conversation with my readers is more likely to engage them more than simply telling them what to do.

How to Measure Engagement

What’s the point of curating personalized content if customers aren’t engaged? My purpose as an informed marketer is to keep the customer happy. The best way to measure customers’ happiness is to measure their engagement with the content I’ve provided. Today’s advanced analytics tools offer key insights into the effectiveness of ads and curated content. One of these tools is RPM, which measures estimated revenue per impression. RPM statistics allow marketers to see which content is generating the most revenue so they can keep doing more of what works.

Emerging Trends

Now that we know how data can powerfully inform content and how we can measure its success, where is all of this headed? After all, one of the best tools a marketer can have in his or her toolkit is novelty. Emerging trends in personalized content include enlisting peer influencers based on who inspires your customers; vernacular advertising, which crafts marketing language related to a specific location’s native dialect; and the use of chatbots and artificial intelligence for a more straightforward conversation with the consumer.

Marketers should remember that content is not universal and that the interests of demographics will evolve over time. Continuing to take the pulse of your consumer is of paramount importance. Look to Insticator for new ideas on how to both personalize content and collect data at the same time for an experience that benefits both the marketer and the customer — a win-win scenario.

Erica Garza is an author, essayist and copywriter with over a decade of marketing experience writing about hospitality, health and lifestyle products. Her work has appeared in TIME, Health, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Health, The Telegraph and VICE. She lives in Los Angeles.

Sources: