How often do you see something really interesting online and forget where you saw it? This is probably the most persuasive reason why relying on visitors to return to your website without being prompted isn’t the best strategy for winning more customers.
Marketing personalisation and automation help take uncertainty out of the equation. They can forge a more secure thread between somebody visiting your website and becoming a good sales prospect. More personalised email communication ensures that what is communicated to your target prospect is highly relevant in helping them solve the issue they are having. The extent to which the information is relevant to them and their individual requirements determines how helpful it is to them and essentially, how they’ll interact with your business.
Email marketing sometimes gets a bad press. Maybe this is because it isn’t well understood. Or maybe it’s because it’s sometimes abused and oversold. Few of us feel comfortable with the idea of hyper-targeted ‘personalised’ ads and promoted posts that seem to haunt every website or social media channel we visit.
The reality should be a much more positive and rewarding experience – as long as businesses remember that personalisation and marketing automation are there to help prospects rather than attempt to ensnare them.
Personalisation clearly offers benefits to the business, otherwise why do it? But it can’t be all about what you need. Tracking website interactions gives you the potential to manage follow-up communications in a highly targeted way. The key words are ‘manage’ and ‘targeted.’ Bombarding an individual with vaguely related emails and content because they clicked a link on your website isn’t helpful, or particularly personalised.
Lead Nurturing Through Personalisation
Think of it in terms of the nurturing process that all leads go through to become customers. The process is one of discovery and finding answers to questions. Well-designed personalisation understands that process and makes it effortless for people to find the answers they need.
Analysing the areas of your website that prospects visit will help to build a clearer profile of what they are most interested in. By personalising interactions, you ensure that they see relevant content that they’re actually bothered about. You can then build relationships based on an exchange of valuable information.
If you handle it in the right way, the process builds familiarity and trust. Communications are more welcome because they are relevant and driven by the needs of your prospects. Leads are more likely to respond positively to your communications, which builds preference when it comes to the final purchase decision.
Timing is critical. If you understand how engaged leads behave you can craft targeted campaigns and identify the optimum time to make contact and take the relationship to the next stage.
The internet is the first port of call when people are looking to buy something new. If you know who visited your site and what they looked at you have a starting point for a conversation. Lead nurturing through personalisation means you don’t lose those opportunities. It gives you a framework to move more of them to a successful conclusion.
In the hands of people who understand how lead nurturing and the sales process work, personalisation becomes powerful.
For more information about how personalisation and automation can improve your prospecting process, contact us today on 01823 429339 or email info@accessperformance.co.uk.
